Blazer Injury Bug

by SadSonic on Jan 2, 2012 3:44 PM PST

All teams in the NBA get their feet cut out from underneath them by injuries to their players. But the Blazers, over the history of their franchise, have had far more than is reasonable. From Bill Walton up through Greg Oden, and now brandon Roy, there are alot of missed games and missed seasons.

Some players, like Marcus Camby, are injured alot but come back to have productive careers. Players like Oden just seemed cursed with not having a body that ever stays healthy. I would imagine that young players with chronic injury problems, most of the time, have a career plagued with injury, BUT there have been some players who start their NBA career injuried all the time but transition into healthy players.

The player I can think of, off the top of my head, who went from chronically injuried to healthy was Grant Hill. Early in Grant's career he never played as a result of foot and leg problems. Now he plays healthy most of the time and is one of the oldest players in the league. I suppose there are more of these kind of players but not many.

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You're wrong about Hill.

Early in his career he was sensational. He was Scottie Pippen good, only more assertive on offense. He injured his ankle just before he became a FA and Orlando acquired damaged goods. So it was “mid-career” that was wiped out by injuries. Now he’s healthy but he’s only a shell of his former self (which is still pretty good).

Players who were injury-plagued but then did well: Joel Przybilla and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are the two most encouraging ones, in that both were big men. Oh, and Rik Smits, whose healthy seasons came after he shed weight, something Greg would do well to emulate.

by meru on Jan 2, 2012 4:21 PM PST reply actions

Maybe Greg could land a gig hawking Jenny Craig

Monica Lewinski sold Jenny Craig for awhile. She probably received one of Greg’s text messages too, so there is already a connection there.

This is my signature. Do you like it?

by scaredcow on Jan 2, 2012 7:57 PM PST up reply actions

THE MID 90S WERE HIGH-LARIOUS.

dinasour type of guys choir boys

by mittsabishy on Jan 2, 2012 10:16 PM PST up reply actions

^this^

Grant Hill was amazing early in his career. Probably the third best player in the east behind only Jordan n Shaq. As far as his ability to stay healthy now, credit the Suns med staff and the amazing job that they do. I don’t wanna butcher this too much cuz I don’t remember all the details, but i remember reading somewhere that the Suns took a holistic approach when evaluating Hill. Rather than focus on the injured ankle they looked at his entire body n found another injury that had gone unnoticed. I don’t even believe it was on the same leg. Long story short, the other condition was forcing him to over compensate on the injured foot thus leading to more injuries. Maybe the Blazers can take the same approach with Greg

by King Mar on Jan 3, 2012 1:19 AM PST via mobile up reply actions

The Suns get way too much credit for Grant

The main reason his ankle injury took so long to heal was that he contracted a nasty MRSA infection after his initial surgery, prolonging his recovery and generally just making rehab a general nightmare. This was unreported at the time, at least from what I remember, but came out around 2007 or so as part of a MRSA awareness thing.

But really, in Hill’s final year with the Magic he played 65 games and 2000 minutes. In his first year with the Suns, he played 70 games and 2200 minutes. He was already on his way back. The Suns should certainly get credit for encouraging diet and lifestyle changes that promote physical health (although I think Nash should get a lot of credit for this as a strong player advocate of these changes), but Hill pretty much happened to be a guy they stumbled into at the right time, at least from my impression.

by Royster on Jan 3, 2012 7:30 AM PST up reply actions

doubt MRSA would have anything to do with bone healing. Unless the MRSA was IN

his bone. Many many people have MRSA and never know it.
Hill credits his improved health to the Suns training staff.
So did Shaq.
OKC uses the same methods…so far they have done quite well.
Greg…I would really like to see the Suns get ahold of him. Just to see…If he played healthy for most of a season…THAT would be the true litmus test.
I think that guy is doomed. Between what goes on in his head and what has happened to his body so far…I have to question whether he will play in the NBA again.

by Natsthecat on Jan 4, 2012 11:54 AM PST up reply actions

Mostly, Grant Hill credits Alex McKechnie with getting him back on track.

McKechnie is a Vancouver (BC)-based physical therapist who has worked with a number of premier athletes, including Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. A year before he went to Phoenix, Hill had ankle rotational therapy in Vancouver, and (this is the more important story) McKechnie helped Hill with painful abdominal tears that had made him consider retiring. At the time, McKechnie was on the Lakers staff; they didn’t renew his contract last spring so he’s currently with Toronto.

(On another note — last year when Rich Cho mentioned that Greg Oden was working with a Vancouver BC core specialist, my mind immediately went to McKechnie. He’s the most well-known guy out there for that kind of stuff. Too bad Cho didn’t drop any names . . .)

Here’s a copy on an interesting article about Hill’s rehab.

by Corvid on Jan 4, 2012 1:56 PM PST up reply actions

Oh, and there's Amare and Kenyon Martin too.

Although both of them are less athletic post-injuries, their injuries were pretty nasty, and they’re still pretty good.

by meru on Jan 2, 2012 4:22 PM PST reply actions

Zach too.

There is encouraging precedent for micro-fracture patients. In Greg’s case though, he has major mechanical issues that put undue stress on his knees. He’ll get back on the court, but without structural stability a guy that big is always a ticking time bomb injury-wise.

by Hipster Olympic Team! on Jan 3, 2012 10:49 AM PST up reply actions