Kristaps Porzingis suffers knee injury (UPDATE: Torn ACL)

I guess so. But keep in mind that he's attempted so many dunks like this in practice (and in games) where he didn't get hurt. Or maybe he's suffered a minor ankle issue. Granted, all it takes is one occurrence to make you more hesitant next time / when you come back from injury, to attempt something like this again.

But the first thing you said seems to suggest that he shouldn't look at the rim after attempting a dunk, and instead, should look at the ground to land safely? There's not a lot of time to do that, and they've been trained to follow through with trying to make a basket than trying to figure out how to land safely.

Honestly, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't think he needs to play safer; that play was pretty safe, as far as one-handed dunks go. It's just bad luck...a "wrong place, wrong time" situation.

 

Yes, obviously you don't have time to look down. But when you practice landing, you can look down to perfect your technique and approach so that you don't have to look down when you really do land badly.

If you do martial arts at all, most of them require training of breaking falls. If you're a big like KP is, then you should probably practice landing like those martial artists, except modified to fit athletes. You don't have to practice it like 50 minutes a day, only once or twice a week, 2-3 times for each technique, probably about 15 minutes if you're the only one doing it per session. Once on soft ground, once on hard ground.

The techniques don't necessarily apply, but it builds a lot of awareness about how you should approach landing given the motion.

Also, no, that play was not safe. He jumped while turning his body laterally in the direction of the jump. That puts all of your momentum on a single foot, single leg, unless you're holding onto the rim with your hands to negate your lateral momentum. Notice that he also put all that weight on the wrong leg too.

 

Right, but all your advice on practicing is completely implying that Giannis' foot wouldn't be there. So all that practicing is a waste of time, since they land on the court anyway, playing and practicing basketball. And if you're saying that players should practice landing on player's feet / other objects so that they'll know how to react in future situations, there's no reason to practice landing on someone's foot, because you might get hurt in practice.

It's all fine and good to practice landing naturally, but how do you account for Giannis' foot? No amount of practicing how to land could have stopped Porzingis' ACL injury from occuring.

And KP turned his body because he wanted his entire body to face the basket. In watching the video again, I think KP felt Giannis on his left. It's unnatural for the body not to turn towards the basket when you're attempting to dunk. I believe you're overthinking the situation. His body was already headed towards the right side of the hoop; why would he keep his body in a forward momentum / facing the cameramen (as a landmark) while using his right hand to dunk onto a hoop on his left? It's just an unnatural motion if he didn't turn.

Again, these one-handed dunks and runs to the rim are all attempted in practice. Landing on the court is all done in practice. What can't be accounted for, is the slope of Giannis' foot. Since it's not parallel like the ground is, physics was against KP.

 

I feel so bad for him, from reckless playing style I am scared for guys like Giannis, Russ, Ad from suffering an injury like this.

With these injuries do ligaments go from 100 to over pressured and tearing?
Or is it that it was tired and/or suffered a minor tear before that added to it?

 

You make a good point about not being able to predict the foot. Half the blame goes to Giannis for putting the foot there, and moving so quickly in the same direction of KP's jump.

I still leave 45% chance up to KP to prevent the injury. He made 3 mistakes:
1. Jumping crazily for the dunk, just to be in a highlight reel. Could've easily pump-faked and/or short-hop to a layup.
2. No grip on the rim, makes it impossible to stop his lateral movement without hitting something on the ground on the way down.
3. Landing on one foot, he's supposed to pull that foot back to time the land w/ both legs. Putting all his weight on one foot for a big man is always a bad thing.

 

i guess this is why rhyno always never dunk

 

I think he will come back from it. If it were a foot injury, I'd say his career is over.

His game doesn't rely on quickness, which is partially why Derrick Rose never recovered. He's a shooter. I think he'll be fine

 

Kemba Walker named replacement on AS team.

 

Well deserved

 

This just sucks.

 

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