UPDATE: Final thoughts on the Roland injury

UPDATE: Derrick Roland is heading home for christmas.


Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, heard about the injury Roland suffered after his team hosted the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.

He offered to pay for Betty Cofield, Roland's aunt and legal guardian, to rent a private jet to fly up to Seattle.

"He wanted his staff to find out out how much it would cost," Mavs spokesman Colin Killian said.

He wasn't the only one offering support.

Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar, assistant Raphael Chillious, and senior Quincy Pondexter made the trip across town to visit Roland in the hospital.

Donald Sloan sits with Derrick Roland in the hospital.
(photo credit: Seattle PI)

Apparently, this isn't the first time Roland has suffered this kind of injury. Back in the 2003-2004 season, when he was playing at Seagoville High School in Dallas (with Donald Sloan and current Blazer LaMarcus Aldridge), Roland fractured his right leg; the same leg he broke on Tuesday night.

There have been conflicting reports as to whether or not Roland will be able to get home by Christmas. Doctors are hopeful he will be able to leave tonight, but according the Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon "The doctor is worried about flying him home with blood clotting and things like that so he's probably going to be here through Christmas." Turgeon, Sloan, and Aggie assistant Dustin Clark have remained in Seattle.

Aggie assistant, addressing the media after the game, had this to say about the view of the injury from the bench, and how his team handled it:

Our trainer ... became very very pale. I think he almost passed out looking at the injury. It was a very gruesome sight for everyone to look at. I didn't see it. According to our trainer it was protruding from the skin. It was gory. ... We heard it. I didn't see it. you cold hear the snap. It was a loud snap. I know we all heard the snap and it's something you're never going to forget. It was a loud break.

First of all, we said a prayer as a team. We all got together, we prayed for D-ro. A lot of our guys were in tears. Crying I think partly because of the injury, the way it looked. Partly because they realized D-Ro was down, being such a tough, competitive guy that he is, it's tough to see a guy like Derrick Roland in that situation. I think a lot of our guys were upset by both the injury and the way it looked and the fact that D-Ro was down. We tried to get the guys back. At one point, coach Turgeon was going to go with him to the hospital instead of finishing the game. Again, our guys really wanted to rally around him and see if we could come up with a win. Our prayers are with D-Ro and hopefully he comes out of surgery ok. He's stable now and we expect him to make a full recovery.

Roland's collegiate career looks to be over. He can apply for a medical hardship waiver, but an extra year of eligibility is only granted if the player participated in less than 30% of the team's games. Roland played in 12 of Texas A&M's 30 games, or 40%. But according to reports, his playing career isn't over. The injury was apparently a clean, albeit gruesome, break, and doctors have said it was similar to the injury suffered by Kenyon Martin his senior season.

If there is one part of this ordeal that does put a smile on your face, it was the doctor that did Roland's surgery:

And as it turns out, Roland might have even had a Washington-area fan in the operating room with him. According to Killian, one of the doctors prior to performing the surgery had something to tell Roland.

Yep, the doctor was an Aggie.

"(Roland's) face lit up," Killian said. "It put him at ease."

Anyone wishing to send a get well wish to Roland can find contact information here.