Suns' Nassir Little, out of concussion protocol, calls fall with JaVale McGee 'dirty play'

Nassir Little has watched the play a few times and has drawn the following conclusion about his tumble with Kings big JaVale McGee last Friday, which resulted in him entering concussion protocol and suffering a left orbital fracture.

“I feel like it was a dirty play,” Little said. “I watched it over and over. He had hooked my arm and was just like, maybe he was trying to sell a foul, but he had hooked my arm. I could’ve broken my arm. I watched it back a couple of times. Hooked me, he fell. So I had his weight, combined with the weight of my own going to the ground.”

Little made it back after missing one game as he returned for Wednesday’s matchup against Brooklyn in the second of a home back-to-back.

The Suns lost, 116-112 but Little scored 10 points, hitting 2-of-5 from 3, and started the second half for Chimezie Metu, who opened the game in the Big 3’s regular-season debut.

“I thought I would be more tired because of the return-to-play protocol,” Little said. “The morning of the game, I had to play. It was a lot of stuff like that. Thought my body would be tired and it kind of was. I didn’t know I was going to play that much the other night.”

Logging 27 minutes, Little also grabbed seven rebounds and added three assists.

“I felt good,” Little said. “I had a few days of rest. My body felt solid. I try to bring that intensity every night. I live with the results.”

Jordan Goodwin wore a mask for several games this season for a jaw contusion.

Now Little is sporting one.

“It’s weird,” he said. “Only played one game in it so far. Still adjusting to it, but just weird. It’s not easy, but it is what it is.”

The play with McGee occurred late in the first quarter of last week’s home loss to Sacramento.

The 7-footer McGee is 270 pounds while the 6-foot-5 Little weighs 220. McGee played one season for the Suns in 2021-22 when they won a franchise-best 64 games.

“As I fell, I hit (Metu’s) hip, thigh area,” Little continued. “Initially, you could see how I was on the floor. I was grabbing my face. I didn’t know how serious it was at the moment. I tried to get up and run and walk it off. I was kind of dazed a little bit. Kind of out of it. A little disoriented.”

Little stayed on the floor for an exchange of possessions before finally getting up.

“To see how he reacted, I could tell something was up,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said.

Little checked out of the game at the end of the first quarter. The Suns staff asked him if he wanted to get checked out.

“As the rest period went on, I was like, let me go to the back,” Little said. “I could feel something coming on. I got to the back and I started losing feeling in my lip and my cheek. My head started hurting and I started feeling sick. So I was like, 'yeah, something definitely is going on.' Just unfortunate. Freak accident. The doctors said they haven’t really seen anything like that. That’s been the story of my career. Always something random happening, but it is what it is.”

Little said his face is still numb, saying he can’t still feel his face, lip and cheek area.

“My eye kind of hurts,” Little said. “It’s just kind of weird. It’s a weird feeling. It’s like pins and needles, I guess is a way to describe it.”

With Phoenix having three days between the Sacramento game and Tuesday’s matchup versus Golden State, Little had some time to return.

The first two days, it was concussion stuff,” Little said. “They were asking me to come out of protocols and start that process. It’s a pretty rigorous return-to-play process when you’re coming out of concussion. I got after it and somehow was able to play Wednesday.”

Little thankfully didn’t need surgery for the fracture because it was nondisplaced.

“It just has to heal,” he said. “It’s not like anything drastic is going to happen. They gave me some medicine for it. I don’t know. They said it takes time because it’s a nerve thing. When you get hit, your nerves kind of get hit and it’s a body response to try to protect yourself. It just shocks and your face just goes numb. I didn’t know that was the thing. I was worried. I was like, I can’t feel my face. What’s going on?”

However, Little will have to wear a padded mask for weeks.

“You guys are going to get pretty used to seeing me with this thing,” he said. “It’s going to be a little part of me for a while. I got to learn how to get along with it.”

The mask is compromising Little’s vision a little bit, though.

Comparing it to wearing “dribble goggles” that blocks the downward vision and forces players to keep their heads up while working on handles.

“You have to train looking forward,” he said. “I can’t really see below, I can’t really see down. As a player, when you’re dribbling, you may not be looking at the ball, but I can see the ball.”

With the mask, Little can’t see the ball in certain situations.

“If somebody throws me a pass to my chest, I can’t really see the ball,” he said. “You probably noticed it a little bit when I first came into the game. I was falling all over the place, just kind of out of it, but as the game went on, I started getting a feel for it. It’s just a little weird. It kind of feels like, you ever watched a movie with the wide screen, it kind of looks like I’m playing a game like through that lens.”

Oh ok.

“I can see the black of the mask, but I can’t really see the ball,” Little said. “When I’m dribbling, I won’t be able to see somebody’s hand, probably, or little things like that. I think as I play, I’ll be able to start figuring it out.”

So how is Little playing without seeing the ball?

“Just reps,” he said much to the amusement of the media. “A lot of reps. I’ve been trying to go through everything I possibly can with this one. Shootarounds. I go through my pregame shooting, warmups. So, I just try to wear it as much as possible on the court. Just trust my instincts and my skill set and hope for the best and live with the results. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nassir Little (orbital fracture) back after 'dirty play' with McGee