The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest, V14 #229

[Kestas]

Eggcentric at aol.com wrote:

>< While the team has been careful to term the operation; "minor," 
>
>Between sprained ankles he was regularly beaten up in practice 
>by Perkins and Gomes. What seemed to annoy Doc Rivers 
>the most, however, was that many of Al's most vocal ankle 
>complaints were timed to practices and games in which he 
>performed the worst.  
>
I'm not exactly sure why this is surprising. If the ankle was bothering 
him on those occasions, than it would probably 1)  have caused him to 
underperform, and 2) caused him to be in pain  and  complain about it  
more. 
As someone who has never been able to completely heal from a bad ankle 
sprain (7 years and counting), I can completely  understand  Al's 
predicament.  Surgeons and therapists could not understand why my ankle 
wouldn't get better, until an MRI ordered years later showed bone chips 
and spurs and the continuous bone bruising they were (and still are) 
causing with any weight-bearing activity. So, the criticism leveled at 
Al by the posters crying out for the "strong, silent types" really seems 
misguided to me.
 And I don't depend on basketball for my livelihood, like Al. 
Ultimately, nobody is going to care about his long terms health 
prospects and basketball career but he. Coaches and whimsical GMs like 
Danny Ainge notoriously care only about the short term. They don't care 
if Al is pumping gas in his hometown in three years because he can't 
play basketball anymore. Nobody willingly goes into surgery (OK, maybe 
cosmetic) if they don't feel they HAVE to do it. The recovery and the 
risks are simply too much.    To  imply that Al did, simply to cover up 
his underperformance, is ridiculous.

Now,  should he have been in a better shape/taped better to potentially 
avoid or lessen these injuries? Sure. But that's a different topic.

> 
>``I'm not going to say it didn't bother me at all," he said. ``But I know 
>what I can do and who I am. I know if I'm in pain, I'm in pain. I don't have to 
>lie about it because I'm too soft. I'm not going to lie to keep from playing 
>basketball. I'm going to be the player I know I can be. No excuses."
>  
>
Kestas