Does Goran Dragić Have a Mouth for an Eye?

Miami Heat guard Goran Dragić has something of a doomed air about him. Take this picture of him playing the 76ers a week or so ago. See that anxiousness, the wavering red energy pouring out of his eyes? The body turned away, the arm flexed in pure precautionary stance, basketball seeming for him a minefield. This is a man who plays in the shadow of death, the ever present apprehension of a human being fighting against himself and the world to leave his mark on the game, on history. He is not relaxed. The Dragon is out there playing with his E-string tuned up to a G-Sharp at all times.

Of course, that sense of doom isn't just inherent. Dragić has taken some wild hits to the dome and done some obscene bleeding out of his face over the years. Hell, his first appearance in the playoffs was marked by a momentous jaw-smacking from Sasha Vujačić's forearm arm. No NBA player, I think, is more defined, more shaped, by his dread, existential and physical in equal measure.

But this weekend, in a game against the visiting Toronto Raptors, he took the heights of pain, the limits of man's flesh, to all new, higher, and more terrifying levels. It happened in the second half, when guard Corey Joseph, the pride of Canada, was taking it to the rim on a fast break. Dragić picked him up at the restricted area, Joseph twisted his arms to protect the ball from a contest and—

—dinged Dragić, right there in the eye. Goran took a tumble, felt his eye out. He didn't seem to think it was that bad. And even when you see it from another angle, it's not like a hardwood car wreck or anything like that. No malice, no geysers of blood squirting into the sky. Powell didn't even manage to score, what with Hassan Whiteside tracking not far behind. Get back to the locker room, put some ice on it, and I'm sure that you can probably get back on the court in no ti—

OH MY GOD. Holy mother of God. What happened!? Was that really just from that? Did Dragić trip and fall on a sword and remove his eye altogether? Did the trainer have some grudge against the Dragon and decided to take it out on him in the course of treatment? Was his right eye actually a second mouth this whole time, and this occasion of getting fucking out-of-control savaged by Powell's elbow was just the perfect time for him to come out and reveal his true self to his family and friends, who aren't sure if this is such a good idea, but since they love Right Eye, they will support him in his journey to live his personal truth, as a mouth?

This is why Goran Dragic cannot play tonight:; pic.twitter.com/4QTAxGLF2d
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 12, 2017

By the time Sunday's game against the Pacers came around, the swelling that time brings had done the eye no favors. The pretense of it even seeming like a mouth doesn't even make sense anymore, it's like someone opened Dragić in Photoshop and just smear-tooled his face to within an inch of its life. I have never seen anything like this. Like, is the swelling really going to go down? What's UNDERNEATH that thing!? Is his eye just, like, suffocating and rotting in there? Is it going to change colors, at least? Does Dragić have Scherzer eyes now? Anything could be happening in there, man! A fucking spider nest could hatch out of that thing and I wouldn't be surprised!

The goddamn secrets of the universe might be floating around in that black hole on Dragić's face. We just don't know, guys.

.@Goran_Dragic wasn't able to suit up for the @MiamiHEAT tonight for obvious reasons but is still cheering on the squad. pic.twitter.com/bA85iqS0SK
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) March 13, 2017

But hey, on the plus side. Look at the other eye. It seems undisturbed, relaxed. Maybe now that the most fucked up possible thing has happened to Goran's face, he knows that the world can't really do anything worse to him. He will survive this, and now he can survive anything. At the trim age of 30, he has the Eye of the Tiger planted into his face, and now he will know fear no longer.

He is free.