Though we are still less than a third of the way into the NBA season, one veteran forward may have the award for strangest absence of the year all wrapped up.
Chicago Bulls forward Torrey Craig missed Friday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan revealed to reporters that the reason for Craig’s absence was … an allergic skin reaction.
“I don’t know what happened — a really, really bad allergic skin reaction,” said Donovan of Craig, per Bulls writer Cody Westerlund. “He’s fine, but I think he’s had this before. Not here, I think he had it [when he was with the] Denver [Nuggets]. It takes a little bit of time for it to calm down.”
The 33-year-old Craig has played very sparingly for the Bulls this season, averaging 5.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 11.2 points per game over a mere six appearances. With Craig out of commission for Friday’s game, Chicago went on to beat Charlotte 109-95.
Game absences due to allergic reactions are obviously pretty rare. But it has in the NBA happened before, including to another former Nuggets player.
