Ford suffers neck injury in bad fall

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

Pain but no gain
Ford suffers neck injury in bad fall
By TOM ENLUND
tenlund@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Posted: Feb. 24, 2004
At the end of the night, there was really only one thing that mattered in the 
Milwaukee Bucks' locker room.
Bucks/NBA

The Bucks' 108-102 loss to the powerful Minnesota Timberwolves had become 
secondary. The Bucks' horribly porous defense, all their turnovers and even their 
late comeback that nearly allowed them to overcome a 21-point deficit had all 
been placed on the back burner.
What was foremost in their minds was the physical condition of point guard 
T.J. Ford, who took a hard fall on a drive to the hoop with 4 minutes 34 seconds 
left and had to be taken off the Bradley Center court on a stretcher, his 
head immobilized.
Ford was taken for St. Luke's Hospital for precautionary X-rays that revealed 
a neck sprain. He remained in the hospital overnight and will not join to the 
team in Boston for the game tonight. The Bucks knew nothing of Ford's 
condition when they left the building.
Ford's injury was reminiscent of the one suffered by Marquette University's 
Travis Diener in a game Jan. 20 at Charlotte. After a Charlotte player landed 
on Diener's neck and knocked him to the floor, the Golden Eagles junior was 
placed on a stretcher with his head immobilized and taken to a hospital.
Four days later, Diener unexpectedly returned to the court and led Marquette 
to a victory over DePaul at the Bradley Center.
When Ford went down, it was a terribly frightening moment for the Bucks. The 
entire team surrounded him as he lay on the court being attended to by medical 
personnel.
"Oh yeah, whenever one of your guys goes down (it's scary)," coach Terry 
Porter said. "I didn't get a chance to see a replay so I don't know exactly what 
happened or how he landed. But whenever they bring the board out, you have 
concern."
Ford scored a layup on the play and was fouled by Minnesota's Mark Madsen. 
Since Ford was unable to continue playing, the Timberwolves chose Daniel 
Santiago off the bench to shoot, and miss, the free throw.
Madsen stuck his head inside the Bucks' locker room afterward to express his 
concern and several of the Timberwolves joined the Bucks in gathering around 
Ford when he was on the court.
"You don't want to see that," Bucks guard Desmond Mason said. "When you have 
a heart as big as his, you don't want to see him go down. He's in all of our 
prayers. We think everything is going to be all right. We definitely hope 
everything is going to be all right.
Mason said Ford was talking while he was on the court.
"I think it was more of a stinger," Mason said. "You can fall on your elbow 
or your arm and pinch a nerve and you really can't feel your hand or something. 
I think that's what the situation is but I read his lips and he said he had 
feeling. So obviously that's a good sign."
Damon Jones replaced Ford in the lineup.
"I look at him as a little brother and I want to be there for him 24 hours a 
day, seven days a week," Jones said afterward. "Right now, I've got a lot of 
things going through my mind. Whenever you see someone go out on a stretcher, 
there are some serious thoughts going through your head. I talked to him a 
little bit, he said he was fine. But still seeing him going out on a stretcher is 
very hard for us."
As far as the game went, Minnesota's Big Three, as usual, did most of the 
heavy lifting, although they did get plenty of support from the reserves. Sam 
Cassell had a big night on his return to Milwaukee, scoring 29 points, and 
Latrell Sprewell added 23. Most valuable player player candidate Kevin Garnett 
contributed 16 points and 18 rebounds.                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
        ** Ford has a narrowing of the spinal column and has had neck 
problems in the past including being taken away by ambulance after a summer pick up 
game a couple of years ago.   Sounds very much like the same thing here.        
                                             TAM