Man o Man, this just flat out sucks. A season with so much promise is slipping away right in front of us. I hate injuries. So, is it time to start talking about who we might get in the draft? Im not big on college hoops until March, so I dont even know whos out there. I cant believe im talking about the draft... At least my Horns won it all this year.
That's why I was confused by TMac's comments that indicated that he would have to deal w/ the pain the rest of his career. Why not just have surgery in the off-season?
I think back surgery is never a sure thing. I've had spasms before and it was brutal. But I also heard stories about guys having back surgery and then being worse later because of it.
I have some slipped disks, and last time my back went out I wasn't able to get on my feet for days. When your back is out you are helpless. It's scary. I couldn't walk right for weeks, even months. Granted I didn't have the best doctors in the world like Tmac, but back problems are brutal. The damaged disk irrates nerves that cause the back muscles to freak out. Then even when you are somewhat better, you start to over compensate with your legs then your knees go out etc. Notice that his legs were not straight when he was carried off. His back muscles are completely constricted around major nerves. It is probably very painful for him to straighten them out. There is no cure for this. Tmac's career could be in major jeopardy.
... I don't need to hear this. I might get a heart-attack if I keep reading things like this. You know what, here is what I will do. I will tune the Rockets out for two weeks, and I will do some fasting and praying. When two weeks are over, I will come back and see what happens. Hopefully by then, Yao and Tmac will be on the court together kicking ass. The worst case scenario --- Tmac retiring due to injury and Yao's spine gets infected, he's put on IL for the rest of the year, and returning to China. If that happens, I will drop my League Pass box from the top of my apartment and schedule depression counselling...
Observations It's definitely NOT a good sign that T-Mac went down on a jump shot. I mean, those twisters of layups he does is one thing to strain the back but, a jump shot? When he went down, I was thinking "OH NO this can NOT be good." I seriously worry about his health. Sure he's only 26 but I mean, he's been in the league for some 8 years already. In terms of the toll of the NBA on his body, I would figure he's more like a 30 year old than a 26 year old. Factoring that into the equation and our roster looks even older than it says on paper. sadSAGE
Back spasms can get you at any time. Just because it was a jumpshot, doesn't mean his body is breaking down more than it used to.
I makes sense that it was from coming down from a shot. That compresses your spine and disks, irritating the nerves, causing the spasms. Someone posted that 610 reported that it's not as bad as last time. Can anyone back this up?
True dat. Back Spasms can occur at anytime. I've always been fighting lower back problems but I think I've just gotten used to it. I have an assortment of back massage devices along with getting my brother to walk on my back to crack it all the time.
How short sighted. How can you even consider the rest of the season without consideration for TMac and Yao's health? Unless of course you're implying that somehow our extremely aged roster can pull it together w/o our two franchise players?
Gotta keep the faith. The Pacers did it last year without three of their franchise players. Why can't we?
It's generally spelled "disc." You have a pretty good description. In my case, I had every kind of physical therapy, several times, before having surgery. It was not successful, not in ridding me of chronic pain. The plus Tracy has is the very finest doctors. I'm one depressed Rockets fan right now.
Latest from 610: MRI shows no structural damage - will sit out the next two games (Bobcats/Kings) at least and will be re-evaluated after that.
Great news! But I can't help but thinking that this is going to be the pattern: Tmac plays great for a stretch, then suddenly feels the pain and has to sit for a few games. Rockets HAS to find a way to limit his minutes. At least get it down to mid 30 minutes. And the team has to be ALWAYS prepared to play effectively with one of Tmac/Yao out.
This IS great news! But on a side note, does anyone else find these comments by JVG kind of strange? ------------------- Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy was evasive about McGrady's condition. "You know what? It's about winning in this league," Van Gundy said. "It's not about trying, that should be a given." ------------------- I mean, T-Mac blew out his back for chrissake just to carry this team. I mean, I'm all for playing hard and hustling, but having T-Mac act like a martyr out there is kind of excessive. Don't you think? For all the things that have happenned this season, I actually believe the players, esp. T-Mac are giving them their all. But the problem isn't one of effort, it's the chemistry, which simply is not there. It could be b/c of talent mismatch. It could be we have too many people just standing their watching T-Mac play superman. I dunno. But T-Mac hurting himself like he did last night is just too costly a price to be paying for JVG-level intensity. At some point, I wish JVG would admit that the team simply is old and not as talented (ex Yao and T-Mac) as it could be. And that's the reason, and not say, the lack of effort that is holding them back. Since Yao went out, it became more and more clear from the post-game comments and other soundbytes and T-Mac was taking this upon himself to win games. But was that fair to T-Mac? If JVG really wanted to "harness" T-Mac's leadership skills, T-Mac would be able to work smarter, and not necessarily harder as he has. But the fact that T-Mac has had to work as hard as he did (I mean 30 points a night for however many nights is insane) tells me that it's the team that is somehow misaligned... but the effort is there. Not to go off on a tangent but if Yao were stubborn and kep playing on that bad toe, how much worse could it have gotten? I feel really bad for T-Mac. Not just b/c he is hurting but b/c he's given his all and yet still JVG is unsatisfied. JVG, I used to like you. What happenened to your human side? theSAGE
Ask Van Gundy why he was playing McGrady so many minutes... way too many for someone coming off a back injury. Check Clutch's recaps, if you don't believe me. Here are his minutes per game for the month of December, up until the game before last night: 38, 38, 44, 42, 46, 48, 45, 35 (foul trouble... came back strong and won game), 44, 34 (blowout the other way... we lost), 20 (Tracy leaves for birth of child at halftime), 45, 41, 36 (blowout), 43, 41. Too many ****ing minutes. In my opinion.
