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Utah’s injuries
Posted by: Matt on March 4th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.How is it that Utah seems to get starting players that sit out with injuries more then they play. Yes I know its a condensed year, but lets look at something.
Kobe Bryant. Broken nose, Slight Concussion, tendons in his finger messed up, and didnt he go to Germany for his knee? Yet still drops 30+ points a night. Bell been out 6 games with a groin strain. Boozer missed 30% of his games with us. AK felt like he was missing every few games with back spasms etc. Even Dwill played with a bad wrist to try and win games for us.
It doesn’t take a superstar to have the want, the drive, to be on the court and heal. Do we just draft really fragile players or whats the deal?
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We have often been hit with the injury bug it seems like since we got Deron, but right now we hardly have any guys sitting out. Booz and AK are often-injured players, that’s just the way it is. As for Bell, he’s pretty old and his body is struggling to handle the wear and tear of this season already. I wouldn’t group him in with the often-inured though. It’s not like a whole lot would change if he were playing right now, as good as he was playing. Millsap is playing through a bruised heel and possible some other mystery ailment or just lack of energy right now. Earl Watson continues to play on an ankle that was badly sprained and is likely not completely healed. Devin got hurt a few weeks ago but played shortly after the injury. Josh Howard’s injury seemed to have suddenly made him a shell of a basketball player, but he’d back to form now. I’d say our guys are fairly durable right now and committed enough to play through injuries that some players would use as excuses to sit out for weeks.
It doesn’t matter what the sport some players will just play through injuries and others won’t. It’s nothing to do with their bodies its all to to do with the mindset. If you look at Paul Millsap and Earl Watson there rarely take a game off. They want to be there for themselves and they want to be there for their team mates and for the team that pays their wages. They might realize that they can’t play to their usual standard but they can give everything they have nonetheless. Sometimes if you have the players that have that type of personaility the coach has to make the decision for them because those players just want to play for their team all the time. By doing so they can do further damage either now or later on in their careers or even after their career is finished. Others like an AK can have the slightest niggle and it affects their head so much as they can’t put in the same energy so they would be a liability on the floor anyway.
Now that I am in my 30s I don’t have the body that I had when I was 20 and first started my business, every time I get up in the morning it hurts. I haven’t recovered from the previous day’s work the same but I have to go to work if I don’t, I don’t get paid, or worse I could lose customers. Some of the kids that are starting work now just don’t have that same work ethic, the slightest thing and they will take off a sick day or three.
Back to basketball, games come in thick and fast, there is not much turnaround between matches. Often players will be playing one night and then flying off that same night hours after the match ended to another part of the country, to play again. Sleep and rest are valuable commodities for a sportsman. It allows the body time to recover and fight again. Take that away from the sportsman and silly little injuries build up. Some of best players in the business know what it takes for their bodies to recover sufficiently between games and will do everything to make sure their body has the best chance. Steve Nash’s career is extended because he knows how to look after his body.
If you look at the Jazz team few of the squad have missed many games, especially if you compare it too other teams. Bell has missed a few recently, but not that many. You could look at his age as a factor. Howard has missed a few and then taking a while to get his game back, but you could put that down to him not having played so much in the last couple of years. Watson has played through his ankle injury, its affected his game, but he’s been available. Looking at Millsap’s play of late I suspect he’s had an injury but hasn’t wanted to miss games. Very few others have missed many games.
The good thing with this current Jazz team is we are loaded with players who want to get better and are hungry to play. It’s also helpful that they live in a city with fewer distractions than say a New York, or Los Angeles type of environment where they could decide if the season wasn’t going well they could afford to live it up a little more.
In every sport this !@#$% happens… some players ar stronger than others for example Kobe is an alien and AK was a fragile glass of water (even if I still missing him).