Former Texas forward Gary Johnson is expected to make a full recovery after fracturing his skull in a collision with an opponent during a second-division Israeli basketball game.
The 24-year-old Johnson was put in a medically induced coma but has regained consciousness, the Israel Basketball Association said Wednesday. IBA spokesman Hagai Segal said Johnson was awake and communicative.
Johnson will require some plastic surgery but should make a full recovery, Segal said.
Johnson, who plays for Hapoel Galil Elyon, was injured Tuesday when Elitzur Ramla forward Johndre Jefferson hit Johnson in the head with his elbow.
"Gary made a step-through move and when he was going up I was close enough to block the shot and I blocked it on the backboard," Jefferson told The Associated Press. "I don't know how it happened, but when I was coming down my elbow caught him in the forehead.
"When we both came down I was standing over his feet trying to tap him on his side to ask him if he was OK. He was holding his head and kind of rolling around."
Jefferson said play was delayed for about 25 minutes as trainers and coaches tended to Johnson, who rolled on the court in agony before being taken to a hospital.
"You could see the fracture, the break," said Jefferson, who went back to his team's bench to wait while officials worked on Johnson. "I just had to walk away."
Jefferson, who played at South Carolina, said he and Johnson had never met before Tuesday. But since the collision, Jefferson has been getting updates on Johnson's condition.
"I have never seen anything like ever happen. Never heard about anything like that," Jefferson said, adding he hasn't watched a replay of the collision. "I didn't see the video because I didn't want to watch it."
Johnson had 13 points and nine rebounds before his third-period injury. Elitzur Ramla eventually won the game 92-73.
