‘I’m Really, Really Grateful’: Parsa Fallah Shares Message After Injury

STILLWATER — Senior Parsa Fallah has been the unquestioned leader on and off the court for the Cowboys.

On Tuesday night, he showed a different kind of leadership voluntarily entering the media room on crutches mere minutes after suffering what appeared to be a serious injury during the final 5.5 seconds of the 91-84 overtime victory over West Virginia.

“I want to talk about a few stuff,” Fallah said. “First of all, I’m really, really grateful for this year that I had here. Oklahoma State was the best year I had in my college career. And the fans, sorry…”

At this point the senior is so emotional he can’t speak for a few seconds.

“I just hope they know how I really care about them and it was a great experience, so I wanted to say thank you to everyone of y’all, all the fans out there,” Fallah said. “Also I wanted to talk about coach Lutz here. He, I’m sorry, I’m getting emotional.

“But this man here, I believe that he’s one of the best coaches in the country. I’ve never seen a man work as hard as him. And I think this is your guy, and he will take you as far. And I really mean every word I’m saying. He changed, he changed my life, and I’m really grateful for him. He made me a better man, a better person and a better player, and those two things was mainly stuff I wanted to come here and talk about.”

Fallah hobbled into the press room after exiting the court on a wheel chair following an injury so frightening that it left Gallagher-Iba Arena completely silent. While Fallah sat down and waited on coach Steve Lutz to come in and open the press conference he smiled at reporters and even joked that he hoped he didn’t have to field questions by himself.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with me,” Fallah said. “I don’t want to talk about it, but I would just say, thank you God. Thank you Jesus Christ, good or bad. I always try to be grateful and appreciate God for what he gave me.”

Fallah continued to smile throughout the press conference, but he also looked like a man who realized he’d reached the end of the line a little earlier than expected.

“We don’t know,” Lutz said of Fallah’s injury. “We got to pray tonight. Parsa is a man of faith. We gotta all pray tonight and hope for the best.”

Although Lutz left the door cracked open, he acknowledged it was possible Fallah’s Cowboy career had come to an end with three regular-season games remaining. The fact that the senior spoke to reporters at all suggests that is the expected outcome.

Sophomore Andrija “Mili” Vukovic took the injury especially hard. He spoke to reporters minutes before Fallah entered the room. Despite finishing with a career-high 12 points, he looked miserable and found it impossible to focus on any questions except for one about Fallah.

“Man that is tough,” Vukovic said. “Nobody deserves it, especially him. Like he’s such a good leader in this team, on the court and off the court, such a good person. I learned a lot on the court and off the court, he learned me a lot. He helped me a lot, and I wish him speedy recovery, all of my prayers went to him.”

Fallah, an Iranian native seemingly intent on putting roots down in Stillwater, expressed so much pride in his Serbian teammate.

“Mili had a rough time here because of his movement from country, like a new country, new culture,” Fallah said. “So it was hard for him, and he needed someone to be there for him. And staff did a great job last year and this year be with him. But I think sometimes you need, like a closer, like a friend, like a teammate, to be there for you.

“It was hard for me, so I just tried to be the person for him that I wanted my freshman year. And Mili is a really talented player. He’s, like, he’s way more talented than me my sophomore year, and he’s, I mean, it’s really cool to hear stuff like that, that my teammates care about me. Yeah, it’s great to hear, but I’m really happy for Mili. He had a really great game. He was playing mature, he was playing hard, and I’m really proud of him.”

Hearing those two guys lift each other up wasn’t a shock for the Cowboys head coach whose praised Fallah’s leadership all season.

“The effect that Parsa has had on Mili and other players can’t be understated,” Lutz said. “He’s just that type of person who cares about every single player, every single person in the staff. He obviously has bought a home here in Stillwater. And I would tell, no matter what happens, he plays the rest of the year with us, or this is it for him. I would tell everyone in the Oklahoma State family that you should be asking me for his number and you should be trying to hire him. That’s what I would tell you, because he’s that kind of guy that you want to be around every day, that you can trust in your organization to have your back and is going to always do the right things.”

Before leaving, Fallah made it clear that he hopes that, regardless of his health, OSU fans will continue to show up for his teammates.

“We have a great team, and the season isn’t over. …. This team, I think fans need to keep supporting this team,” Fallah said. “This is, we got a great staff, Oklahoma State has a great staff, great people, and they will take it far. These were the two things I wanted to come in and talk about because I really, really, really love this team and I love the fans. I love Oklahoma State.”

UPDATE

In a thoughtfully worded post, Fallah confirmed on Instagram Wednesday that he tore his ACL in his left knee, ending his season.

 

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