Jazz assistant suffers torn patellar tendon during player warmups

A Utah Jazz assistant coach had a brutal stroke of misfortune prior to Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

ESPN’s John Hollinger reported that Jazz assistant Dell Demps suffered an apparent leg injury while helping the players warm up before the game and had to be looked at by trainers.

Jazz head coach Quin Snyder later told reporters that Demps, after being evaluated, was determined to have torn his patellar tendon, per Pelicans writer Jim Eichenhofer.

Demps, 52, is in his second season as a Jazz assistant coach. Coincidentally, Demps previously served as general manager of the Pelicans from 2010 to 2019. Friday’s game was played in New Orleans at Smoothie King Center.

It is pretty rare to see an assistant coach get injured, but it has happened. Hopefully Demps recovers from the unfortunate injury soon.