No one mentioned it.
I think writers were afraid they would jinx things. Not just players are superstitious.
I’m talking about Injuries with a capital I.
The Celtics won because of every reason that has been mentioned….and one more. They stayed healthy enough to keep the team in tact for the duration. I wanted to say something about that all year long. But I thought that as soon as I do……you know. I didn’t want to get blamed. Neither did any Celtic beat writer it seems.
So let me finally say it. The Celtics avoided any major injuries to key players for the year.
There were some swerves, some speed bumps, a few traffic slowdowns, minor detours and a couple of rest stops on the Celtic road to success. But there wasn’t a major player ‘gone down’ for much of the season.
Remember last season? The Celtics amassed 311 games missed due to injury in their version version of the Young and the Defenseless. Led by Wally Szczerbiak’s 52 games in Wallyworld’s version of As the Ankle Turns, followed by Tony Allen’s 48 games out of commission for the show called ‘Was That Dunk Really Necessary?’, and the piece d’resistance, Paul Pierce’s Stress Reactions of the Rich and Famous, Delonte West looked downright healthy with only 12 games missed due to injury.
This season, when it mattered so much more, the Celtics managed only 86 games missed due to injury. 33 of those were attributed to Scot Pollard. That is a very good number for an 82 game season. Now, that’s not saying that players weren’t playing hurt this season. They most certainly were. There was one very good reason why. Championship aspirations will do that to a player. Doc and Kevin Garnett have both alluded to the fact that not all injuries were made public.
More impressive, even the injuries they did have did not stop the Celtics train. Most amazing was the team’s 7-2 record with Kevin Garnett out with an abdominal strain. The sound you hear was another criticism crashing to the floor. They could even win without team anchor Kevin Garnett.
Ray Allen missed exactly 5 games due to ankle injuries, though he had ankle surgery in the off season.
Of note, Paul Pierce did not miss a single game due to injury. He missed one game for ‘personal reasons’. That is amazing because we all know that Paul took a pounding this year and more so in the play-offs between injuring his ankle and his knee.
One thought…how would you have liked to have been the Celtics trainer who checked Pierce out in the locker room of the game that Paul was wheeled out of?
You have to make a snap judgement on how hurt he is and how much more he could hurt the knee by playing. The wrong decision could affect a career of one the game’s biggest stars. I’m absolutely sure Head Trainer Ed Lacerte knows exactly what he is doing. Still….those must have been anxious moments for Mr. Lacerte and anyone else who was involved in the decision.
If you could get a glimpse of the training, massage, and therapy room before and after each game, you would get just an inkling of how much stress and punishment these players put their bodies through to entertain us for 48 minutes and to earn their money. Some reading this may laugh at that notion. But make no mistake. Something called ‘NBA shape’ is a real concept. Young players, semi-retired players, off season players will all use that term. It is not to be taken lightly. These players are, for the most part, in fantastic shape.
As the year wore on, there were post games in the locker room that James Posey looked like he had come through a war as he sat there and gathered his thoughts and rested his body before showering. He missed only 6 games all year, 3 due to sprained finger and 2 because of back spasms. The way James throws his body around the court you would expect far worse. James Posey is a gamer.
It took PJ Brown nearly a month to get in NBA shape, and the progress was subtle. Though his timing was off, he looked pretty good from the start. Big Baby had to work up to it. Pollard never quite got back to it.
Doc kept the three stars relatively healthy by getting each of them some rest and watching minutes carefully all year long. Still, any NBA team is one twisted knee or ankle away from finding out how good #2 on the depth chart really is. It is hard to prevent those things from happening.
The biggest off season story influenced by injury is Tony Allen. He himself will admit the psychological aspect of recovery is just as important as the physical. The thought of re-injuring his knee played a part in his ability to recover from it. Tony looked healed and ready to move forward in his brief appearances in the play-offs. Still, we haven’t seen the Tony that existed before the dunk that sideswiped down his promising career.
Next year, may we hope that the Celtic team stays as healthy as this years’. It is almost a requirement to win a championship…like defense and team oriented play.
So let this be the article that is ‘Banned in Boston’ again next season. Page 32, paragraph 3, line 7 says ‘off season articles don’t count’ when it comes to jinx talk.
A healthy Celtic team will be even more dangerous next year with a season under their belt.
