Re: Griffen

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU>]

At 20:29 5/26/00 EDT, you wrote:
>although you wouldn't expect him to perform at the same level in the NBA, it 
>is more likely that the all around game we saw at the beginning of the year 
>truly is his game. The second thing, which is most important, is the free 
>throw percentage. At the beginning of the year, Griffen was pretty reliable 
>with the open outside jumper and at the line and even made a couple of 
>pressure free throws to win a couple of games. After he got injured, he 
>didn't seem to be able to shoot from outside and he also shot poorly from
the 
>line. I didn't know whether or not he was a shooter or not. Now I believe
the 
>real Griffen was the one we saw at the beginning of the year. 

One thing that some people on this list didn't seem to realize is how
serious an injury a bad ankle  sprain can be, and were dismissing it as an
explanation for Griffin's subpar performance, as well as Walker's play in
the beginning of the season, and Pierce's game after his sprains in both
seasons. The attitude was, 'geez, can't they get over using this excuse
already?'. While it is true a light twist can be forgotten in a week or
two, serious, grade 2-3 sprains typically involve bone avulsion (basically,
the ligaments ripping chunks of bone off the ankle bones) or even outright
fractures, and can take a year or more to heal fully. While the player may
able to return and even *look* normal running around the court, the power
and  flexibility in that ankle are gone, and it affects everything -
jumping, lateral movement, shooting (because you're jumping off the healthy
foot only, thereby being unbalanced in your jumpshooting). 

Frankly, comments like that were especially annoying to me, because, having
suffered a similar ankle sprain last July,  I knew exactly what these
players were going through. Btw, my ankle is still not fully healed, and
it's been 10 months and lots of physical therapy sessions. And even though
these guys receive excellent medical care, and are somewhat younger than
me, there's still no way they can come back to full strength in a few
weeks, or even months after such sprains. Walker's comments about his
improved play being due to his ankle being fully healed were not an attempt
to excuse his early-season performance, and the dramatic drop in Pierce's
and, especially Griffin's (who's having surgery to have the bone fragments
removed and the ligaments surgically repaired), level of play post-injury
does not mean that they suck  - it means that they were hobbled by their
injuries.  So, the upshot is, we should expect Griffin and Pierce to play
as well as, or better than, they were playing before their injuries when
they're fully recovered.  
Kestas