Category: Basketball Injuries

Rudy Gay is one of the NBA’s unsung heroes. He goes out day after day to work hard and being a professional basketball player. He’s strung together a pretty decent career and managed to stay injury free until now.

Today was a bad day for him as he’ll need surgery to repair a separated shoulder. He injured the shoulder back on February 15, 2011 and was told to sit, rest and wait for the healing to begin. It never healed. Dr. James Andrews was consulted and the recommendation was surgery.

All this is odd considering the injury happened on a shot and not during a traumatic event like a fall. The NBA doesn’t allow embedding of the video, but you can watch it by clicking on the link.

The 2011 NCAA men’s basketball tournament is a glorious time to be a fan. Even the casual fan gets involved filling out brackets and playing in the office pool. It’s also when the so-called experts come out to tutor everyone about picking winners. They have their strategies of “pick the highest seeds” or even “go with the higher RPI.”

Still, inevitably, everyone settles into their own strategy for prognostication. The first weekend always leads to the crushing realization that the little old lady at work who picked based on uniform colors had the better strategy.

With fall of Pitt, Louisville, Texas and even Xavier many of us have become afflicted with a busted bracket. Take heart, there are thousands of you out there dealing with the same problem and with this guide you can find some comfort and a possible cure.

Andray Blatche plays basketball for the Washington Wizards. He’s having an ok season statistically, but he’s suffering from a strained shoulder. He did this in a game versus the Milwaukee Bucks.

Shoulder injuries are not that common in the NBA, but Andray’s occurred as he fell to the floor during a double team. His arm became caught and then his shoulder crumpled.

What is a shoulder sprain? A shoulder sprain occurs when any of the ligaments or tendons of the shoulder become damaged. The shoulder is a very flexible, though delicate joint that provides movement for the arm.

What causes a shoulder sprain? Shoulder sprains are due to trauma or inflexibility, but most issues occur when a fall occurs as in this case.

Chris Paul is having a good season for the New Orleans Hornets. In a game against the Cleveland Caviliers last night, he was strapped to a back board and his neck immobilized with a neck brace.

Today it was found that he is suffering from a concussion and his injury isn’t structural in nature. It was a scary time when Chris Paul went down. His coach, Monty Williams, said:

Chris is not the type of guy to lay down, so to see him flat on the floor like that, you forget about basketball for a minute and think about him as a person, his fiancée, and his kid.

The footage of him being taken off the court on a backboard and brace is dramatic, but why do you immobilize people with a neck brace?

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a big dude. He runs 7 foot 3 and comes in at 260 pounds. He’s on the disabled list for the Cleveland Caviliers for at least a month with a bone chip in his ankle. Interesting. Why? Well, he has a history of foot problems and this is just the latest.

1. What is an ankle bone chip? Most people might think n ankle bone chip is similar to a heel spur and they would be right, except the chip is a free floating part of the ankle that has come off. In Zydrunas’ case, the part of the ankle affected isn’t part of his foot structure.The ankle is a joint, so more than likely the bone came from one of the many in his foot. Again, this is concerning for him since his foot has suffered many injuries in the past. Through an MRI they were able to determine that this isn’t a structural issue.

Tyler Hansbrough is arguably the number one college basketball player in the world. He plays for the University of North Carolina, which is ranked number one in the nation. Tyler is experiencing a “shin stress reaction”. I use the magic air quotes due to the fact shin stress reaction is a new term to me.

It shouldn’t be, though, it’s the pretty much the same as shin splints.

A shin is actually your tibia bone. When you injure this area of your body it’s referred to as a medial tibial stress syndrome. Medial means middle.

McDavid Shin Splint Support (One Size Fits All)

Larry Hughes holds a special place in my memories. He played at St. Louis Univeristy and brought the team closer to a national championship than they had been in a while. Larry has had an up and down pro career, bouncing among various teams. He’s found a home with the Chicago Bulls, but trouble has come.

Larry Hughes dislocated his shoulder in a game against the Timberwolves. The prognosis isn’t good Larry and the team is saying he’s going to miss six weeks. Seriously?

Yep. Dislocated shoulders are nasty things. Sometimes they cause more damage than apparent, which is why Hughes is having a contrast MRI tomorrow.

Tyson Chandler is the a big part of the future of the New Orleans Hornets, so it’s disappointing he’d leave a game due to a sprained ankle. It does sound like it’s not too bad:

I’m fine. I just stayed out as a precaution.

We’ve covered how to treat sprained ankles in the past, so I thought we’d talk about a few ways to prevent sprained ankles. If you avoid the injury then you don’t have to deal with it.

The ankle is an engineering marvel. It’s composed of ligaments and bone allowing you to move your feet interdependent of your legs. As such a pivotal join, no pun intended, it stands up to great stresses placed on it from walking, running, cutting and more.

Corey Brewer is a professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves. To say the start of his career has been a tough one would be an understatement. Although he was a fabulous college player, his pro performance to date is limited. Coming in as a first round draft pick he proceeded to put the dismal stats of 5.8 points per game and 37% shooting percentage. His performance has led folks to question whether Brewer is made for the NBA or not.

A recent story eluded to the fact that Brewer lost his confidence, his ego during his rookie year. In the article Corey says:

It was tough. Once you lose your confidence, it’s hard to get it back. We play 82 games. It’s a long season. We always hear about it, but until you play it, you don’t realize it.

I think this is a first for us. We have a second entry for an injured player, Steve Francis. We covered his original injury in 2005 when he had bruised ribs. I look back at the entry now and chuckle. In the 2.5 years since we’ve covered so many more things. Starting 2008 with a new Steve Francis injury seems appropriate.

Yes, Steve Franics is out with quadricep tendinitis, and yes, I know this is the second entry in a row on quadriceps injuries. Who knew there would be such a rush of quads injuries at the end of the year?