By Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter Published Feb 09, 2017 at 2:59 PM

The worst fears of the Bucks, and their fans, were confirmed Thursday afternoon, when the team announced that forward Jabari Parker had, once again, torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Parker will undergo surgery, miss the remainder of the 2016-17 season and then begin a 12-month rehabilitation process after the operation, the Bucks said. The injury, which occurred in the third quarter of Milwaukee’s home loss to the Heat on Wednesday night, is to the same knee in which Parker tore his ACL as a rookie.

Just like the play in December 2014, Parker went down on Wednesday on a drive toward the basket, when his knee appeared to buckle without contact. Immediately wincing in pain and grabbing the knee, Parker was unable to stand until teammates helped him up, as the BMO Harris Bradley Center crowd watched in stunned silence.

That shock turned somber Wednesday night, with the team initially calling it a knee sprain, and through Thursday morning, as fans waited for news about the injury’s severity and tweeted messages of both optimism and dread. Then, when the team announced this afternoon that an MRI revealed Parker had indeed torn his ACL, the mood around Bucks Nation was all only sadness. It was an awful setback for the 21-year-old rising star and beloved fan favorite.

Parker had taken a major step in his third NBA season, increasing his numbers across the board, and especially in scoring. He was averaging career highs in points (20.1), rebounds (6.2), assists (2.8) and minutes (33.9) – which were second, third, fourth and second, respectively, on the team – creating Milwaukee’s much-hyped, and hoped-for, talented young tandem with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Parker scored 33 points earlier in the year, and last Friday recorded his third double-double of the season, with 27 points and 11 rebounds against Denver. He scored 20-plus points in 28 games and had been in consideration for an All-Star reserve spot.

After Parker tore the ACL in his left knee as a rookie, during a game against the Suns on Dec. 15 of 2014, he underwent surgery a month later. Following what was, by all accounts, an impressively intense and focused rehab, Parker returned to NBA action on Nov. 4 of last season, a little more than 10 months after surgery. After being eased back initially, Parker found his groove as the year went on and finished strong down the stretch, along with Antetokounmpo, sparking excitement for the Bucks as they went into the 2016-17 season.

Devastating on its own, the news of Parker’s injury made the heretofore happy return of teammate Khris Middleton – from a severely torn hamstring, about a month ahead of schedule – harshly bittersweet. Joking at practice on Tuesday before Milwaukee’s game against Miami, Parker had said the Bucks were counting on Middleton to "save the season." How depressingly and paradoxically portentous the words are now, as the loss of Parker effectively ends this season, which was already going downhill fast, with Milwaukee having lost 11 of its last 13 games. Parker will miss the remainder of this year and probably half of 2017-18.

The bigger concern, though, is on Parker’s health – not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. As a 20-year-old, he worked exhaustively to come back quickly and strongly from his first knee injury, and he returned as a player with noticeably improved athleticism and explosiveness. He was also rapidly gaining confidence this year, showing off an aggressive, attacking arsenal, as a vicious dunker, capable shooter and emerging playmaker. Will Parker, after two ACL repair surgeries in the same knee in three years, still have the same bounciness, power and self-assurance when he gets back on the court?

Additionally, there’s the financial element. Parker is eligible for a rookie extension next summer, and he was seemingly a lock to receive it before today’s news, but the injury surely gives the Bucks pause. A team that was poised to build its young, potentially championship-contending core around Antetokounmpo, Parker and Middleton now must consider the long-term viability of such a commitment. In the short term, forwards Mirza Teletovic and Michael Beasley will have to step up in Parker’s absence, though general manager John Hammond – who addressed the media after Wednesday’s game because head coach Jason Kidd asked him to, given the circumstances – could make a trade before the deadline to acquire additional help.

How is Parker handling the cruel news? What will happen to his contract extension? Does this drastically change the Bucks’ roster-construction plans? Will Parker come back anything like the player he was becoming? Could he possibly still get better? These are all unfortunate questions Milwaukee and its fans never wanted to have to think about, and the answers will come slowly and perhaps painfully. For now, we can only wish Jabari Parker the best and wonder how he and the Bucks deserved such familiar tragedy.

It seems like we're doing this all too often lately, escaping from sad, terrible news, but if you just want to feel a little bit of Jabari-related happiness again, read this story of his friendship with a zoo turtle.

Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter

Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.

After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.

Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.