The knee bruise that derailed Kevin McCullar Jr.’s final collegiate season at Kansas will prevent him from starting his professional career this month.
Several outlets reported on Friday night, with the New York Knicks about to begin their Summer League campaign on Saturday, that as Newsday’s Steve Popper put it on X, McCullar “stayed back in New York to continue rehab on the same injury suffered during his time in college that made him miss the NCAA Tournament” and “will not be in Vegas with the team.”
That means that McCullar is coming up on six months of dealing with the injury, a bone bruise that KU coach Bill Self first revealed following a game against Cincinnati on Jan. 22.
The injury ended up limiting McCullar’s effectiveness, pushing him off his All-American pace from earlier in the season and in some cases causing him to miss entire games, including five intermittent conference contests. Self decided to sit him for the Big 12 tournament with an eye toward a return in the NCAA Tournament, only to say upon the team’s arrival in Salt Lake City that McCullar would sit for the rest of the season.
McCullar had an offseason medical procedure on his knee. Self revealed in a press release after the Knicks selected McCullar No. 56 overall in the NBA Draft that he “had a setback after the season as well.”
He had been listed on New York’s Summer League roster that the team put out Thursday, the last one released by any NBA team, although the Knicks still have yet to announce his signing after previously doing so for their four other draft picks.
Meanwhile, fellow second-round pick and former Jayhawk Johnny Furphy made his Summer League debut with the Indiana Pacers Friday night and scored 12 points in a 97-95 overtime loss to Jalen Wilson’s Brooklyn Nets. Parker Braun did not play for the Denver Nuggets in their opener against the Los Angeles Clippers.
