Playoff injuries

Anybody actively involved in sports has, at one time or more, experienced the agony and misery of injury. It could be too minor that a simple ice pack would do wonders or too serious that a team of doctors is called to ponder.

Many years back, just don’t be specific how long ago, I also had my own unpleasant experience on these maladies. From sprained foot and knee to pulled calf muscles and then gravitating to the ridiculously painful sciatica, I labored and endured. 

I’m not exactly the type you have in mind.   I’m built heavy, and still is so if I do fall, the impact and the accompanying result would be, yes, heavy. I’m more of the borderline mediocre, intramural and baranggay athlete type where you give everything you’ve got during practice knowing for a fact that in actual games, I get to produce sweat riding the bench and getting my throat sore cheering for my teammates than getting in the court to play. 

That’s where I collected my injuries - during practice. And my father would then say that if all the trivial injuries I had would be translated into points, I could be intramural or league MVP. And my mother would then say, “Ayaw na kaha’g duwa Dong oy, pang uniform ra man tingali nang imo”. Ouch.! Bless their souls, my parents do have their sense of humor.

Going to the NBA Playoffs, nine of the sixteen teams doing battle are injury-free. Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Indiana, Memphis, LA Lakers, San Antonio, Dallas and Oklahoma City have healthy lineups although Dallas and Utah are already put out of their misery. I can’t exactly say the Lakers are in good health as one member is almost deranged, contradicting his new alias that connotes serenity.

This year’s most disappointing playoff injury happened to Derrick Rose and it gored the Bulls’ fans guts bigtime. Rubbing salt to their wounds is Joakim Noah spraining his left foot. The Sixers only need one win to advance to the next round.

Center Zaza Pachulia of Atlanta has improved Boston’s chances of advancing by gifting the Celtics with a sprained foot. The Knicks? Looks like Lady Luck couldn’t find her way to Madison Square Garden.

Jeremy Lin tore his meniscus, Iman Shumpert hurt his knee. Amare Stoudemire was stupid enough to challenge a fire extinguisher to a fist fight. And just when he reported back for action and delivered a monster game, Baron Davis probably just ended his playing career by tearing his ACL and MCL.

Orlando was lucky to make it to the post season, no thanks to Dwight Howard’s drama with Coach Stan Van Gundy and his bad back. With a superstar deprived team relying on fluidity and crisp executions, this will be Indiana’s time to advance to the next round. 

Oklahoma’s Batman and Robin – Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, introduced the broom to Dallas and swept them in the first round. They now wait for the Lakers to finish off the Nuggets. If Wilson Chandler (hip) and Rudy Fernandez (lower back) were playing, Kobe and his minions would have been finished by now with their erratic plays.

Memphis had been accusing the Clippers of flopping. They say that at the slightest contact, the other team from LA Land do award-winning acts. The torn Achilles tendon of Chauncey Billups is no flop. Just imagine if he’s around with Chris Paul.

There were three notable playoff injuries from way back. We begin with Magic Johnson in 1989. The Lakers were on course for a three-peat behind Magic’s MVP season. In Game 2 of the NBA Finals versus Detroit, he suffered a hamstring injury. Starring Isiah Thomas, Vinnie Johnson and Finals MVP Joe Dumars, the Piston backcourt overwhelmed and swept LA for the crown.

In the 2003 Western Conference Finals, Dirk Nowitzki was coming off a strong season and was doing battle with Tim Duncan and the Spurs. He sprained his knee in Game 3 and San Antonio went on to win the NBA crown.

2009 could have been Houston’s glory run. Yao Ming was having a good year and a teammate called Ron was still Artest. Yes, this was the season that Kobe and the Ron-Ron had their famous bro-mance. LA and the Rockets met in the Western Conference semis. Game 3 came and Yao had a hairline fracture on his left foot, a prelude to his retirement. Guess who became the champions.

We all do get active and the possibility of injury is always present. Yes, we are careful but there is always that thing called a freak accident. For serious and professional athletes, this has become an integral part of their regimen and if fate is not too kind, it abruptly ends their playing career.

Yes, I still do sports today but the closest thing to injury for me this time would be numb fingers related to hitting the computer keyboards and brain freeze, not the Artest/MWP kind. Its also known as writers’ block, so when there are times that I miss my column like the last two weeks, you know the reason.

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