USC's Alijah Arenas out with knee injury months after fiery car wreck
The incoming USC freshman suffered a knee injury that required surgery and will force him to miss six to eight months, the team announced Wednesday.
Basketball insider Chris Haynes, who first reported the injury, said Arenas, the son of former NBA superstar Gilbert Arenas, suffered a torn meniscus.
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Alijah ArenasChatsworth Chancellors drives to the basket against Jesuit Marauders in the first half of a boys CIF State Division II championship basketball game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 15, 2025.
MediaNews Group via Getty Images
'Alijah is a tremendous worker, teammate, competitor and person,' USC coach Eric Musselman said in a statement. 'He is understandably disappointed that he will not be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our No. 1 priority.'
It's been a scary few months for the younger Arenas, who was put into a medically induced coma following a frightening April car crash in which he lost control of his vehicle and hit a fire hydrant and a tree.
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His Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames, and Arenas said he was in and out of consciousness before going to the hospital.
He was released about a week later.
Chatsworth High School basketball player Alijah Arenas prepares to shoot a free throw in the second half of a boys CIF State Division II championship game in Sacramento on March 15, 2025.
AP
'I switched lanes without meaning to, and I knew something was wrong, and next thing you know, I can't get back to the left lane,' Arenas recalled at the end of June. 'So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I'll just pull over. So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I'm on to the right. But when I'm speeding up to turn, I can't stop. The wheel wasn't responding to me as if I wasn't in the car.'
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Arenas is a five-star recruit who is ranked No. 10 overall by 247Sports and the nation's top shooting guard.
He received offers from Arizona, West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona State and California, among more than a dozen others.
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