Yves Missi Sidelined After Taking a Zion Williamson Wrecking Ball to the Knee

There are bad breaks in basketball, and then there is having your own franchise player accidentally dismantle your leg.

According to Underdog NBA, New Orleans Pelicans center Yves Missi is officially out for Saturday's game. The young big man suffered a left knee hyperextension during Friday night's matchup against the Utah Jazz, and the video is exactly as brutal as the diagnosis sounds.

The injury happened in the second quarter when Zion Williamson drove to the rim, got blocked by Jaxson Hayes, and tumbled directly into Missi's planted leg. Having Zion fall on your knee is the biomechanical equivalent of getting hit by a rogue grand piano. It is honestly a miracle the leg is still attached to his body.

This is a brutal momentum killer for a guy who just introduced his new campaign to the league in a massive way. Missi dropped 13 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks in the season opener against the Indiana Pacers. He looked like the exact kind of rim-running, board-crashing center New Orleans desperately needed.

Now, fantasy managers and prop bettors who rushed to buy stock in the Missi breakout are stuck holding the bag. With the young center sidelined, the Pelicans' frontcourt rotation is suddenly looking incredibly thin, which means the rebounding lines for the rest of the active roster are about to get heavily inflated on the sportsbooks.

Missi is slated to be re-evaluated in the coming weeks. Until then, New Orleans has to figure out how to patch the hole in the middle of their defense, while Missi just has to focus on icing a knee that took a direct hit from a 280-pound wrecking ball.