Theo John Suffers Knee Injury, To Miss Summer League Play

Bad news for former Blue Devil Theo John as he has injured his knee on the eve of NBA summer league play.

It doesn’t sound like a terribly serious injury but summer league is a proving ground for any young player who wasn’t drafted, and many who were. It’s a chance to make an impression on NBA talent analysts and it’s really a shame he’ll miss that.

Odds are they saw what we saw at Duke and what Marquette fans saw up there: a powerful big man who has no problem subordinating himself to something bigger than himself.

In the movie The Blind Side, the NFL (we think) ran a psychological test on Michael Oher and found that he had a profound instinct to protect his teammates - off the charts type numbers.

We’re not sure how to quantify what Duke fans liked so much about John, but we’re not sure they bonded that much with any other transfer. He really became one of us.

That quality may not be enough for him to stick in the NBA, but like former Georgia Tech star Jose Alvarado, there’s something special about John. We hope he gets well soon and gets his shot.