KJ Simpson speaks after horrific foul on Jaylen Wells

Hard fouls happen. Bad fouls happen. But what happened on Tuesday night between the Grizzlies and Hornets was tough to watch. Jaylen Wells rose for a breakaway dunk in the first half when Hornets rookie KJ Simpson fouled him front behind, taking out his legs and causing Wells to crash to the ground.

Watch the play here, but warning that it’s a scary fall. Update: Wells has been released from the hospital, and has a broken wrist.

It was immediately clear that things were bad. Wells was clearly concussed, and the medical team were worried about a possible neck injury as he was stretchered from the arena and taken to a local hospital.

Players prayed, Simpson looked completely distraught as he obviously didn’t intentionally mean to hurt Wells, but either got caught up in the moment or was unable to stop as he ran at full speed. A rookie mistake, albeit the worst kind of error imaginable.

Thankfully Wells is largely okay. He did sustain a concussion and broken wrist on the play which will end his 2024-25 season — but there was no spinal injury or life-threatening injuries, as it was initially feared.

Overnight Simpson took to social media to apologize for the foul, and to send well wishes to Jaylen Wells.

Well accepted Simpson’s apology.

You could clearly see Simpson was concerned from Wells’ safety. He had a poor play in the heat of the moment, but nothing about it was malicious.

Wells posted this photo of himself in the hospital still in his NBA jersey. The worst case scenario was thankfully avoided.

Hopefully Wells has a quick, complication-free recovery and we can see him back on the court soon.