MIAMI ? The vow at the end of last season and the start of this season is that he'll be standing for the finish. Yet asked again Wednesday to quantify how he will meet that personal mandate, Heat center Shaquille O'Neal offered little clarity. "I'm not going to mess around and get hurt like I did last year," he said, having hobbled through the postseason with a thigh bruise. "I guess we're all going to be careful." O'Neal's 73 regular-season appearances in 2004-05 were his high over the past four years. He had missed at least 15 games each of the previous three seasons. Asked whether he intended to take more time off during the 82-game regular season, O'Neal said: "I won't ask for that. But whatever they feel is best, we just have to roll with that. It's not something that I ask for." Source
You can't prevent accidents from happening; unfortuantely they just happen... Hopefully for his sake they won't...
Yea, he got injured due to a collision didn't he, so that's not really a case of him being injury prone, just an unlucky situation.
It was an accident, but the injury took more time to heal than normal. A deep thigh bruise generally takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal, but it took Shaq close to two months to heal from it.
Pre-season conditioning, and stretching can really reduce the chances of injuries. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">It was an accident, but the injury took more time to heal than normal. A deep thigh bruise generally takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal, but it took Shaq close to two months to heal from it.</div> I think Shaq's deep thigh bruise must have been fairly serious though, because they kept having to remove blood from the area and most people with deep thigh bruises probably don't have to continuously put huge amounts of strain on it by playing NBA basketball for 30+ min.
Woohoo Shaq! Way to decide you are going to do your job and earn that 20 million this year. Really, if he were anything other than a pro athlete he would be fired. Not that I don't live Shaq, watching him play is amazing...sometimes.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SkiptoMyLue11:</div><div class="quote_post">Pre-season conditioning, and stretching can really reduce the chances of injuries. I think Shaq's deep thigh bruise must have been fairly serious though, because they kept having to remove blood from the area and most people with deep thigh bruises probably don't have to continuously put huge amounts of strain on it by playing NBA basketball for 30+ min.</div> Not necessarily, it's a common injury for football players and they usually recover within a week. Shaq's thigh bruise was definitely severe, but in severe cases they normally take an average of 6 weeks to heal. Shaq probably felt if he had more muscle mass the bruise wouldn't have been so deep.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Not necessarily, it's a common injury for football players and they usually recover within a week. Shaq's thigh bruise was definitely severe, but in severe cases they normally take an average of 6 weeks to heal. Shaq probably felt if he had more muscle mass the bruise wouldn't have been so deep.</div> Then he should be doing more squats as apposed to bench presses; he's putting more muscle in the wrong areas... Overall, he's got to pick up his stamina issue... IMO, this seems to be the culprit to his feeling-weak-at-the-end dilemma...
^^ Quite true. Tell me something, do you guys think the Heat could've beat the Pistons if Shaq and Wade were healthy? What Wade did was unreal, playing through what he did, and Shaq just played through his injury throughout the playoffs.. Let me know, because I'm still not sure.
Obviously Heat fans think they would of but you can't tell. Many guys carry injures and If you don't keep yourself in the right shape or are naturally injury prone then you will have injures. Thats basketball for you. There have been many series over the years that have had guys hurt for a certain team. People at the end of the day don't remember those injures. They remember what team came out on top. I'm sure REAL Miami fans are sick and tired of talking about that and just want to get on with the new season. Shaq will still likely miss his 20 odd games or whatever but If he is heathly come playoff time thats the only thing that matters as far as the Heat are concerned.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheAnswer2:</div><div class="quote_post">^^ Quite true. Tell me something, do you guys think the Heat could've beat the Pistons if Shaq and Wade were healthy? What Wade did was unreal, playing through what he did, and Shaq just played through his injury throughout the playoffs.. Let me know, because I'm still not sure.</div> I don't know... But I honestly think those injuries were'nt the reason why they lost... I saw that game, and I'm sure you did also, but what I saw was "chokeness"... Guys throwing up shots that didn't need to happen, Shaq missing KEY free throws... They were up by at least 6 points, with 1 - 2 minutes left of the game... If you ask me, they should've stocked up on defensive players other than offensive players... To me they are like the east coast version of the Portland Trailblazers back when LA beat them in game 7...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Not necessarily, it's a common injury for football players and they usually recover within a week. Shaq's thigh bruise was definitely severe, but in severe cases they normally take an average of 6 weeks to heal. Shaq probably felt if he had more muscle mass the bruise wouldn't have been so deep.</div> I agree that Shaq's conditioning probably wasn't satisfactory, however I do not think that additional muscle would have necessarily increased the recovery time. I think the main reason why the recovery time was so long was because he came back too early and put too much stress on it. Had he not played for 6 weeks straight it would have properly healed and he could play again. But because he came back early, he slowed the healing and worsened the situation. That is also what caused the condition of blood pools within the muscle(myositis ossificans), which does not happen if the muscle properly heals.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheAnswer2:</div><div class="quote_post">^^ Quite true. Tell me something, do you guys think the Heat could've beat the Pistons if Shaq and Wade were healthy? What Wade did was unreal, playing through what he did, and Shaq just played through his injury throughout the playoffs.. Let me know, because I'm still not sure.</div> It is possible, but you can never prove it either way. It's just a matter of opinion, and like Allnet said, I'm sure Heat fans are sick of thinking about 'what if.' SkiptoMyLue11 - You're probably right, Shaq took a week off and then took two games off in the playoffs. He probably did rush back, making it harder for the injury to heal. Being 33 didn't help either because injuries just take longer to heal as you get older. I think Shaq bulked up in his upper-body because he takes most of his punishment there.
