Joe Harris will not return this season for the Nets.
General manager Sean Marks announced that Harris would have to undergo season-ending surgery. Marks delivered the bad news during an interview with YES Network that aired prior to the Nets meeting with the Miami Heat.
“Unfortunately Joe has done everything he possibly could do up to this point to avoid having surgery and wanting to be back with his teammates,” Marks said. “He is what defines a Brooklyn Net, but unfortunately it’s been determined in the last 24 hours that he’s going to have to have season-ending surgery. Which we’ll follow up in the next week or two, but we feel terrible for Joe. We all know how much he means to this group.”
Here is Sean Marks announcing Joe Harris will have season-ending ankle surgery.
?: @YESNetwork
pic.twitter.com/qlApcWX9rS— Christian Arnold (@C_Arnold01) March 4, 2022
The Nets general manager later said in a statement released by the team that it had been determined that Harris would need to undergo “additional arthroscopic surgery.” He is expected to make a full recovery, but will be ruled out for the rest of the season and the playoffs, according to Marks.
The latest development ends months of speculation over when or if Harris would return to the court for Brooklyn after suffering an ankle injury and undergoing surgery on it in November. The Nets had been tight-lipped about Harris’ return, but reports had surfaced that he had received a second opinion on his ankle in January and Nets head coach Steve Nash said that a second procedure was possible in February.
His agent had told the New York Post something similar as well. Now it seems the worst-case scenario has occurred.
“(I feel) absolutely terrible,” Marks told YES Network. “He’s the one stalworth that’s been here from the beginning. For him not to be able to be part of this run that we’re about to go on, you know physically on the court, I couldn’t put that into words. I know Joe is feeling heartbroken about not being able to be out there with his teammates really contributing on the court, but there’s other things he does.”
