Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay said he has a fracture in his jaw and a broken tooth, but he insists that won't keep him off the court as Team USA plays Serbia in the gold medal game of the FIBA Basketball World Cup on Sunday.
Gay suffered the injuries after getting elbowed in the third quarter of Team USA's 96-68 victory over Lithuania in the semifinals on Thursday night in Barcelona.
"I've got a fracture in my jaw, a broken tooth and am going to probably need a root canal," Gay told USA Today Sports on Saturday. "The top is where I got hit. It's painful. It's uncomfortable, and it still bleeds, so I've got to continuously gargle. It is what it is, man."
According to USA Basketball officials, Gay's only confirmed injury is a chipped tooth.
Gay said he complained about the elbow in the handshake line with Lithuania's players after the semifinal game, which led to players on both sides shouting at one another and brought Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski into the middle of the fray as peacemaker.
Gay told USA Today Sports that he isn't sure whose elbow hit him in the mouth, but he clearly still wasn't happy about it Saturday.
"I think [the elbow] had a little bit to do with [the situation afterward]," Gay told the paper. "It was a dirty play, man. It was a dirty play."
Gay said he underwent medical attention until 2 a.m. Friday morning before flying with the rest of Team USA to Madrid for the title game.
