Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink carried off court with knee injury vs. Sun

Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink was carried to the locker room after sustaining a knee injury.

Brink exited the Spark’s matchup against the Connecticut Sun minutes into the game on Tuesday. As the Sun led 9-5 with 6:23 remaining in the first quarter, Brink drove to the basket against Sun forward Brionna Jones when she awkwardly planted her leg and collapsed to the floor in pain. Brink immediately grabbed her left knee and struggled to put any weight on it. She then was carried back to the locker room by the team staff.

The Sparks later confirmed that Brink suffered a knee injury and ruled her out the remainder of the contest, which the Sun won 79-70.

CAMERON BRINK: Sparks rookie shoots down ‘exhausting’ WNBA rookies vs veterans narrative

It’s been a long grind for Brink this year. The 22-year-old wrapped up her collegiate career at Stanford in March, winning Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors en route to a Sweet 16 finish. Brink was selected with the No. 2 overall pick of the 2024 WNBA draft by the Sparks in April and she made her WNBA debut a month later in May. She was averaging 8.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists through 14 career games, and is a league leader in blocks per game (2.4), trailing only the Seattle Storm’s Ezi Magbegor (2.8) and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson (2.5).

Her summer is expected to be longer. Brink was named to the U.S. women’s 3×3 team at the Paris Olympics, alongside college All-American Hailey Van Lith, 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year Rhyne Howard of the Atlanta Dream and Cierra Burdick, a former star at Tennessee.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cameron Brink suffers knee injury in Sparks’ game vs. Sun