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Fournier Puts Toughness and Determination on Display

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John DentonDec. 16, 2014

BOSTON – Reviewing the video feed late Monday night of his team’s game in Toronto, Orlando Magic coach Jacque Vaughn rewound the footage over and over again to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

This time, however, Vaughn wasn’t looking at a missed defensive assignment or a blown box out on the boards. The TV footage from Monday’s third quarter showed guard Evan Fournier sprinting parallel to the court behind the benches – a la Willis Reed for the New York Knicks in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals – to rejoin his Magic mates.

His upper lip badly swollen and stitched together after being split open by a stray elbow, Fournier showed great determination in wanting to get back out on the floor with his teammates Monday night. While his return didn’t spark a victory – Orlando lost 95-82 to Toronto – the guard’s purpose and selflessness gave Vaughn goose bumps on his skin as he watched the video footage after the game.

`` I loved seeing him come back and I froze it on the tape. He was coming from behind the scorer’s table. He’s behind us on the bench and I froze it on the tape. It gave me chills,’’ said Vaughn, whose Magic (10-17) face the Boston Celtics (8-14) on Wednesday night. ``That’s how you get respect from your teammates. And that’s what this whole thing is about – at the end of the day, you want respect from your peers around the league and the guys that you are sitting on the bench with. That’s how you get it, something like this.’’

Fournier was flattened on Monday night when Toronto reserve forward Tyler Hansbrough – a veritable bull in a china shop with the way he flails his arms and flops around on the court – connected with an elbow to the right side of Fournier’s upper lip. Within seconds of hitting the floor, Fournier turned his head to the left and spat out a mouthful of blood. The biggest shock to him was that there were no loose teeth mixed in with the pool of blood.

Fournier has had teeth chipped or knocked out three times before by hits. When he spoke to his wife, Laura Kebe, one of her first questions was about his teeth.

``The replay was bad. I’m not going to lie. But when I stood up, I was OK,’’ said Fournier, who watched a replay of the hit on his phone after the game. ``I just needed the stitches and after that I was fine.’’

Fournier missed the final 6:43 of the first half and the first 6:31 of the third quarter while doctors put seven stitches into the hole in his lip. Whereas the Magic perked up and went on a second-quarter run after Fournier went down, they struggled through a dismal 13-point third quarter without their starter at shooting guard.

When he was cleared to return after getting the stitches, Fournier sprinted out of the tunnel only to see that he was on the opposite end of the Magic’s bench. Therefore, he had to run the length of the court to rejoin his teammates.

And not long after getting back into the game, Fournier drilled a 3-pointer that ignited a 7-0 run that got the Magic back to within 74-72 of the Raptors. Also, the shot extended Fournier’s streak to 31 straight games with at least one 3-pointer – the longest active streak in the NBA. His return, however, was all about getting back out on the court and trying to help his team win a difficult road game against the East-leading Raptors.

``I came back to the game for the team because I really wanted to be out there and help the team,’’ said Fournier, purposefully downplaying his actions. ``I just like to be on the court.’’

The Magic acquired Fournier, 22, in June in a trade with the Denver Nuggets because they liked the versatility in his game. And the third-year guard hasn’t disappointed by averaging career-bests in points (14.4 ppg.), rebounds (2.8 rpg.) and assists (2.3 apg). And he’s contributed in a variety of ways, hitting big 3-pointers and showing a toughness in finishing at the rim. Of his 44 3-pointers, 38 of them having come from above the break in the arc. A whopping 63 of his baskets have been unassisted, meaning he’s often driving hard to the rim. Fournier has 75 baskets in the restricted area this season – a statistic that shows his fearlessness when driving in among the bigger players.

``We all have respect for Evan. I’ve said it for the longest that he’s a competitor and a tough kid and he plays tough out there on the floor,’’ Magic forward Tobias Harris said. ``It showed a lot about him as a player and how tough he is, how competitive he is and how much he wants to win. That’s a good thing to see in a team – he goes into the locker room, gets stitches and comes back out and is still fighting for our team. He’s about our team and us winning games.’’

Harris, who had 18 points in Monday’s loss, was nearby when Fournier was clocked by the Fournier elbow. And he saw firsthand the amount of blood that the vicious hit caused.

``I was right around there watching him spit out that blood,’’ Harris said. ``It was a lot (of blood) and it was nasty. (Seven) is a lot of stitches and that was a lot of pain that he was in.’’

Fournier gets a lot of catcalls from opposing fans and jokes from his teammates about his pony-tail hair style – he merely does it to keep the hair from flopping down into his face – but he knows a thing or two about toughness from his family. His mother and father were national champion Judo fighters, and his father called him on Tuesday to check on his condition following the elbow to the mouth.

``In Judo, you get your arm broke, you get choked and you can tear your ACL. (With his parents) I could see scars on their knees and elbows and they had some big injuries in training,’’ he said. ``My dad called me and said, `Are you fine?’ OK, it’s just a lip, man.’’’