San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox will undergo season-ending surgery Tuesday for damage to a tendon in his left pinkie, league sources confirmed Thursday.
Fox, 27, had been playing with a dislocated pinkie finger on his left shooting hand all season. The Spurs decided to have Fox undergo the surgery now, a league source tells The Athletic, because of the significant recovery time needed after the procedure. Rather than wait until after the season and push Fox’s rehab well into the summer, the decision was made to do it now and ensure Fox is ready for the start of next season.
Fox told The Athletic last week that he had been playing through the injury to give San Antonio a chance at the Play-In Tournament. But with the Spurs out of the postseason picture — San Antonio sits at 12th in the Western Conference standings — Fox accepted the reality of concluding his season to speed up an offseason of recovery to hopefully ramp up play for next season.
“Oh, obviously, for me and Brian (general manager Brian Wright), we’ve talked about the surgery thing,” Fox said. “At some point, I’m going to have to get it, but we’ll see where we are before that comes.”
Fox, who was traded to San Antonio in a multi-team deal with the Chicago Bulls earlier this season, played in 62 games so far between splits with San Antonio and Sacramento. Fox averaged 23.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. In 17 games with San Antonio, the former Kentucky guard averaged just under 20 points a game (19.7) and 6.8 assists per game on 44 percent shooting from the field.
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