Odd you mention this. As Mr. Jaynes pointed out in a blog post not too long ago, the Portland medically staff has been pretty shitty historically. They told Walton it would be ok for him to play when in fact playing is exactly what destroyed his career. I am sure if I sat down and thought about it there would be other similar cases from the 80's and 90's. Most recently, Martell and Blake have both gotten bum advise from them. Were I Oden, I would keep a doctor around that isn't affiliated with the team to determine when I should and should not play. And when is KP going to come out and say the team screwed up?
This situation kind of reminds me of when Jermaine Oneal was here, but couldn't get the time on the court. I know if were patient, we will get to see him play at the level we expect one day. It's just going to take a while. Greg has a lot of tools, and a lot of natural ability. He just needs to get up to full speed is all.
We're building a team culture here. We like the doctors we have. We're going to go to war with those guys. BNM
Can we just buy the Suns' medical staff? Or trade staffs if we throw in $3M, like we always do to get the Suns' first rounders? Because, what with Stoudemire's microfracture comeback, and Shaq's improved performance this season, the Phoenix medical staff is looking stellar.
The same medical staff that let Amare Stoudemire (A) come back too early from MF surgery, and (B) let him play without wearing goggles after his initial eye injury?
as great as they've been, don't forget extending Nash and Grant Hill's careers, they too botched Amares MF recovery by letting him come back early.
On Bill Walton, medical science has advanced greatly in the last 30 years... and he continued to have a decent career after he left the Blazers and even won a 2nd championship with Boston. I think the team probably said day-to-day for Greg because they didn't want everyone to overreact and add more pressure to GO. If the team had said up to 6 weeks everyone would have freaked out (like they did). That has obviously backfired but I don't see anything to indicate that the medical staff has given bum advice to any of these players and I certainly don't see where they screwed up. Medicine is not an exact science and time table estimates are just that... estimates. Recovery is going to depend on many different factors and no two people or injuries are exactly the same. For Blake, shoulder strains are really painful and he wanted to go back earlier than he should've but he just had a set back and it didn't cause any additional or long term injury so it wasn't bad advice. Martell came back and broke his little toe which wasn't a part of the surgery he had that kept him out of the line up at the start of the season. Again, not bad advice... just another injury (like Steve's) that is just going to need time to heal but no surgery. Seriously guys, these are normal sports injuries that are part of the game. At least they're able to treat conservatively which is always better than having to do surgery. I really see this knee chip of Greg's as a fluke. His knee hit another player at exactly the right angle and force and 9 times out of 10 that would probably just result in a bruise. The poor guy was just unlucky, it's not like his body just couldn't handle the game. I'm not even ready to say Greg is injury prone yet.
Well I did know. The Blazers have been doing this all year. It's ridiculous, and in this case it has resulted in a bunch of shit about whether or not Greg has heart and even wants to play. http://sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1869712#post1869712
Spud is sure right that medicine is not an exact science. And remember we don't know what the docs said to Oden or to team management. If the doc said 1-6 weeks, it is possible everyone got really optimistic and said Oh great, Oden will be back in a week! In other words, it is not necessary to assume the team is dishonest, the doctors are incompetent, or Oden does not want to play. Not that that will stop some people...
The problem isn't that the team said it was a day to day situation with Oden, it's that they (or was it Nate?) said he's cleared to play any time and it's basically up to the big fella when he's ready to give it a go. That insinuated rather strongly that it was Oden choosing to sit out longer than necessary. In truth, the original prognosis had him nowhere near ready to play when those comments were made.
