More Quotes About KG

http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/4/2/819356/celticsE28099-title-hopes-rest-on-kgE28099s-a

If this is a bone spur, than the decision to opt for rest and not surgery makes sense. We just have to hope that more rest can get Garnett free of pain and that if it comes back he can play through it. Surgery during the off-season should solve it.

Unless the spur is a result of a calcification of the tendon – and, in that case, we have a very, very bad situation in our hands.

Stop scaring us!

You have to be kidding me! This sounds worse and worse!

this makes more sense than actually say he will be back and then not and then yes..
see if you look at the statements, there are not definite which means they don’t want to impact playoff ticket sales..its gotta be..
i mean who says ‘i will be really surprised if we wasn’t available for round 1’

I trust Rivers, after all he’s a doctor.

they’ll still be fun to watch. My expectations will have dropped significantly, so the further they advance the more surprised/excited I’ll be. It’d be awesome if we could win without KG, but it’s unlikely. The 08-09 seasons for Boston teams seem to be defined by crucial injuries hurting their playoff run.

That doesn’t sound good at all.

The Author said Doc was a “player’s coach” because he’s not having a practice after last nite’s game. I’ve thought about this alot (tells you what kind of life I have). But is Doc a player’s coach? In a way he is and in a way he’s not. (First of all, not having a practice after last nite is just plain smart). But what I really think makes people think that Doc is a player’s coach is that Doc remembers what it was like when he played and uses these memories to make some decisions. (The same can be said for Danny). To me the term “players coach” seems to imply that the Coach lets the players rule. Doc’s not that.

Reminds me of a great Larry Bird story. A buzzer beater was needed to win a game. KC Jones in a time out drew up a play and Bird put his hand on the “blackboard”, wiped it clean and said something like “just get me the ball and everyone else get the hell out of the way”.
KC got mad and told Larry off. He said “I’m the Coach, not you and I’ll tell you what to run”. KC then said: “DJ, get the ball to Larry and everyone else get the hell out of the way”.

Rajon is one of the most serious players out there,so if there’s a spectrum of KG opinions in the news, you can expect his statements to be on the serious end of the spectrum. But if you listen to the actual audio of that interview on the celtics.com audio archive, Rondo doesn’t sound as serious as that quote implies.

I am hoping that when Rajon says something is career-ending.. he doesn’t mean it literally, just relative to everybody’s high standards for KG. Career-ending as in a knee not good enough to win championships anymore. I guess the analogy would be Tiger Woods – I remember Tiger saying that he’ll stop playing if his best game isn’t good enough to win.

Clearly R2 is bad at touting the company line. Maybe we should ask him about injuries every time.

Nobody wants to believe that KG might not be able to come back in time for the playoffs. It really crushes the fans because we want the big three to regroup and do what they do best.

Come on guys – when have you ever seen an injury “covered up” in the NBA for anymore than a couple of days?

KG has a knee strain – he isn’t getting surgery – he is having soreness in his knee because of the medial strain, that’s it. If there is no structural damage and no chance of further agrevating the injury, all he needs is rest and some cordizone in order to deal with the pain.

That’s what its about – pain – he isn’t physically incapable of playing, but he’s having pain and the team can afford to rest him right now. If they need to they can give him help with the pain and that will be enough to get him through the playoffs.

100%? Maybe not…but he’ll contribute and Boston will have their starting 5 to close out games – KG’s tangible production offensively has never been what’s won this team games this year – its his presence, his voice in the game and on the court that counts the most.

Davis and Powe have become much better players – if Boston has 70% of KG for 25+ minutes and has him down the stretch they can compete against anybody.

KG will play through the whole playoffs - i’m stating it here first…enough playing doctor — if we’re listening to the yahoo from Yahoo! or Rajon Rondo for “official” information then we’re just grasping at straws…

will rogers said- all i know is what iread in the papers. we certainly don’t want to go there any more. i know nothing but i sure do hope kg is ready this year. if not this team has played it’s tail off and has provided me with great pleasure.

I have started to write at length about this issue with KG probably 10x but then decided to hit delete. But I finally figured out something relatively clear and simple to say that might avoid attacks and not say too much about me:

I am a physician who specializes in joint rehab, both spinal and extremity. I work with college and pro athletes in 20% of my practice. 50% of the rest is car accidents and occupational injuries. I develop and carry out individual physiotherapy programs, rehab programs involving pt, chiropractic, occupational therapy, acupuncture and masage. Some of it is pre and or post surgical My own licensure is in medicine, pt and chiropractic and in three states. I am NOT associated with the Celtics in any way nor have I had an contact with anyone now associated with them within the last two years so I literally know nothing about KG’s situation and indeed may know less because I have not read all the reports. I also saw Al Jeffersons injury and was almost certain it wasn’t an acl. So take it all with a grain of salt. All I am saying is I know about as much about knees as one can know.

1.If KG had an acl injury they are totally mishandling it in a dangerous way. We can safely assume he doesn’t. As Obama likes to say, “No one is talking about that.”

2. If KG has any loose cartilage, it would probably be articular from behind the knee and this could have been and should have been removed early on with less than a month out. Could they have blown this situation?? I worry a lot about how our players are handled after the Al Jefferson situation and how many minutes Ray got at the start of last year. But my wag is that this isn’t the issue.

3. If there was any loose cartilage anywhere could it have been removed surgically with minimal time off? Yes.

4. Is there a way to factor in rajons comments, the idea that surgery was never an option(DA) and also that he will be 100% for the plaoffs(Doc)? NO. What’s the closest we can get? Patellar femoral tendonitis, seemingly, by the way they are handling it. He has no history of issues, right, and it started to bug him in December it looked like, WHEN HE WAS WALKING UP OR DOWN THE RUNWAY, he was ok on the flat surface. and they ruled out surgery, hopefully because they are smart and not blowing it. It makes a lot of sense that this is what it is. It wouldn’t be surgical anytime soon, a lot of rest will help, and if you abuse it in a foolish way he could develop permanent calcification of the tendon. So I am hopeful that this is what it is and they should play him limited minutes even when he feels ok. I also think the alley oops might have set this off.

I think his injury is not that serious. They’re just making sure that nothing happens to him over the last few games of the season. He will be well-rested and ready to go for the playoffs.

…with just tendinitis are (a) it should have healed after 6+ weeks of rest, and (b) we have a report, by a reporter who got it directly from KG’s agent, that he has TWO things wrong with him: tendon “strain”, plus “loose cartilage”. Here’s the link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4030740.

These days, I figure Danny Ainge NEVER tells the truth about player status anymore. You know he’s lying because his lips are moving. KG’s injury – jumping up and coming down incapacitated despite no trauma or malrotation of that leg – is most consistent with a loose body in the knee that got stuck just then. Plus Danny did say, with a guilty look on his face, that “surgery was never an option”. Which means it was. And it HAD to be.

So you ask, why wasn’t a simple arthroscopy done to remove the loose body? He would have healed by now for sure. There are some possibilities here: The loose cartilage diagnosis could have come late, for example. Or maybe KG just refused it. But what is also very possible is that arthroscopy WAS done, early. Remember that he disappeared completely for 3-4 weeks. It might have been done, but failed to completely clear up the problem. I.e., there could have been multiple bodies, which they missed. Now he needs another procedure, but it’s too late.

This loose-cartilage-plus-tendon-pain scenario is the most probable, because the info comes directly from KG’s agent – who is presumably out of reach of Danny’s gag order, and should be considered a reliable source — and it fits the known facts almost perfectly.

Bottom line: KG will not be 100% this season. He could go to 0% at any time, and there’s no way to predict or prevent it.

This team can still win it all, and if they do, it will be a story we’ll never forget. It will be legend.

…is for Tanya Harding to whack LeBron and Kobe on the knees to offset KG`s injury.

All we know is that he has a problem. If he can play he will. If keeping him out till the playoffs to let it heal some more so he can be closer to 100% they should do it. When he came back from his injury last year he was useless for 2 to 3 games before things came together. When he played in those few games this year, just his shooting was off for the 1st quarter, but he seemed to be in synch with everything else. There’s no need for him to play now. If it’s just sore and keeping him out is precautionary that’s fine. If he plays and it’s just sore, but he can still play he’ll play thru it. I think he can play game 1 without needing to play a game or even practice if this is the case. From everything I read it seems that a scoping procedure could be done, but is optional at this time. If it were done he’d probably be gone for the season. Thus, if he can play and move around fairly decently I think he’ll play. If he can’t walk on that leg then it’s over. So what will be will be and there’s not much use in guessing about it.

……….because he’s doing his best to keep things under his hat. I too am medically trained and have dealt with athletic injuries in high stakes athletes. You never disclose all of the facts and ramifications thereof to your opponents. There is no sense to it. You work on the facts and details and treat the case behind the scenes. If, in the end, you are unable to put the athlete back in the competition and have to “shut him down” for the season, then you can choose to disclose all of the facts or not. Medical records of this sort need not be divulged ahead of their proper time.

Don’t fault Ainge for doing his best Belachick impersonation. There’s a reason for everything.

By the way DRJ1, I too concur that there’s a loose flap somewhere floating around in the knee with associated complications. We may be right and we may be wrong. But the bottom line through all of this to me is:

i) You keep your mouth shut and treat the condition as best you can. It’s nobody’s business but yours.
ii) You look not just towards the upcoming playoffs, but towards the long term career/health of the athlete. If you can play him in the post season, you do it and follow up after the playoffs with whatever is necessary (from a surgical standpoint).
iii) If your therapy/rest does not get the athlete to a competitive level, you can always make the declaration at the last moment.
iv) Never, and I repeat never, give your opponent(s) an emotional or psychological advantage with stakes as high as they are. In this case tipping your hat that KG is done for the year even though he may not make it back on the court.
v) To the contrary, perhaps you give your opponent a false sense of security in that they expect KG to be less than full speed, then bring him out at full capacity and capture the look in their eyes. Remember the coach said he expects KG to be ready to go for the playoffs. He’s just repeating what he’s likely heard.

Yes. These are “mind games”. No question about it. But there is too much at stake here. As long as you’re treating your patient (KG) to the best of your ability and with sound medicine, let the others wonder what they may.

To Wahz, DrD, Cordobes, BfB, etc….

Thanks for the in-depth and informed speculation as to what exactly could be bothering KG. Speaking for the rest of us laymen (and women) out there, it was a joy to read.

No matter how many different ways we dice it up, we have NO IDEA what is actually troubling KG’s knee / leg. What we do know: the recovery is longer than expected and the rest of the team is playing well, but no longer dominant.

April 12th will reveal a lot: at Cleveland. If the team can win without KG, there may be hope. If not, it could foretell what the Eastern Conf Finals will be like.

Personally, I’m almost ready to throw to concede this year to Cleveland. With KG, no one can stop us in the East or West. Without KG, we’re a footnote (i.e., how great this year could have been if we had only been healthy) for fans to remember and for everyone else to forget.

I do not have any statistical proof, but I do not recall any team winning the Championship with a key big man having a joint / knee problem limiting his effectiveness. Last player I remember (not a big man) was Isaiah Thomas winning it against LAL with a sprained ankle. But the games leading up to the Finals he was healthy.

As I recall, he played a great game 6 against the Lakers on a sprained ankle, but the Lakrs won the championship.