Jarrett Allen says rib injury was ‘worse than people thought’

Allen missed the bulk of Cleveland’s playoff run last season.

Jarrett Allen suffered a cracked rib in Game 4 of the Cleveland Cavaliers first round playoff series with the Orlando Magic. He would miss the following eight games of the playoff run with an injury that became an ongoing point of contention.

Allen’s integrity was called into question by fans and even his own teammates. Confusing wordage (what even is a ‘pierced’ rib?) and Allen being repeatedly listed as “questionable” rather than “out” led to even more speculation throughout the following months. But on Media Day, Allen finally settled the score.

“I think that definitely contributed to the skepticism of the injury,” Allen said. “With rib injuries, you don’t understand how bad it is until you go through it — looking at the CT scan you can still see the piece of bone that’s still floating in my body, it was definitely a worse injury than people thought.”

Allen spoke about how difficult it was for him to sleep and even raise his arms above his head during the recovery process. As much as it killed him to be on the sidelines, he simply couldn’t compete at playoff intensity with the injury he suffered — no matter how other people felt about it.

The Cavs’ center is no stranger to being the target of online harassment. His performance in the previous playoffs made him a lightning rod for criticism. Allen responded to that with the strongest regular season of his career in 2023-24. He told reporters on Media Day that he took the same approach to brushing off the negative comments this summer.

“I feel like I’m very sure of myself, if I was able to play I would play,” Allen said. “It’s understandable [why people were skeptical of his injury] but it takes a lot more to get under my skin.”