PAD AS HELL! Celts star Rajon Rondo wears a bulky brace on his dislocated left elbow in Game 4 against the Heat last night — two days after injuring the hinge in Game 3. Rondo scored 10 points in 38 minutes, but the Celts lost 98-90 to fall into a 3-1 hole. (AP)
In the 1973 conference fi nals, Game 3, John Havlicek was chasing Bill Bradley through a network of picks when somehow he smashed into a brutal Dave DeBusschere screen in front of the Celtics bench.
His shoulder got badly separated.
Boston lost 98-91 to go down 2-1. Then, minus Havlicek, the Celtics led by 16 on Easter Sunday at Madison Square Garden, only to lose in double OT.
“They were totally jobbed by [referee] Jack Madden,” Bill Feinberg, then a baby-faced C’s employee, objectively recalled when asked about Hondo’s injury.
Boston lost in seven games after trailing 3-1. The Celts won 68 games that season, never losing more than two in a row. Havlicek played the remaining three games with his left arm wrapped to his body and had to shoot left-handed.
“I sat right behind the Celtics players,” Feinberg said. “When Havlicek ran into DeBusschere, it was vicious. It sounded like a loud snap!”
Rajon Rondo’s backward tumble (pull-down by Dwyane Wade, whose opponent’s right arm jerked his jersey) was not nearly as noisy, but his misshapen/dislocated left elbow from trying to break the impact was far more unsightly.
Two replays were more than most could take. On each recurrent showing, Pau Gasol and I looked away from our TVs.
However, the plot got sicker some 20 minutes later after team doctor Orville Redenbacher popped Rondo’s elbow back into place and he took the court at the start of the fourth quarter.
Huh?
There was neither rhyme nor reason to see Rondo in anything other than business casual for the rest of the evening. Playing made less than no sense, especially since calves had been conceived and born in less time than the Celtics gave Shaq’s to heal his.
Yes, it was a must-win Game 3. But the Celtics did not desperately need their irreplaceable floor leader. His presence was scarcely inspirational, as many portrayed. They led 72-61 after three, the last 7:01 without him, and won by 16.
So, why would management and coach Doc Rivers, regardless of the doctor’s go-ahead, let an invaluable asset compete with an unserviceable arm?
A left arm that became so swollen and so sore the next day that Rondo required heavy medication — pain-killers and anti-inflammatory shots and/or capsules — that he spent hours on the training table visiting Never Never Land.
Considerable swelling indicates damage. However, according to the Celtics, an MRI and a CAT scan were negative.
At the very least, Rondo’s ensuing condition suggests, to my scholarly staph anyway, whatever the team doctor did to treat him immediately following the accident was intended to get him back into the game, first and foremost.
That implies the care given was not in Rondo’s best interest. If care was the case, then rest, ice, compression (a sleeve was worn) and elevation would’ve been prescribed/imposed.
Naturally, the Celtics’ party line claimed the team did not jeopardize Rondo’s care. How dare I insinuate team president Danny Ainge and Rivers would choose short-range glory over long-term consequences! Only an out-of-towner would present such twisted thinking.
Judging by the conclusion, Dr. Brian McKeon was confident Rondo would not be risking additional injury. How many times have we heard that before in sports, only to have the opposite happen?
Was the diagnosis correct? Apparently. But McKeon couldn’t have known the extent of Rondo’s ligament impairment for sure until machines inspected the arm. Severe harm often isn’t discovered for the first 48 hours. Right or wrong decisions made before then are reckless, it says here.
Who sincerely believes McKeon would’ve authorized his son to play with one limp limb?
Of course, Rondo wanted to return for the rest of this pivotal game. If left up to him, as long as a walker wasn’t required, he’d put himself back in 100 times out of 100. Because he wants to play and because of the potency of peer pressure; the opinion that matters most to players is not the doctor or the coach but that of other players.
“Don’t want guys to think I’m soft or weak.”
Jay Cutler couldn’t play QB for the Bears in a playoff game last year, and the criticism that hurt most was from other players.
Contrary to locker-room laureates and misguided members of the media who applauded Rondo for “manning up,” I recoil at the rampant notion that playing in his condition showed “heart and toughness. Branding him “courageous” is just a crock!
Mothers who decide to have more than one baby knowing how much pain they went through the first time! Now that’s courageous!
The “man-up” default position is easy. It’s the inherent point of view in any macho-laden work environment. The real courage would have been for Rondo to face the peer pressure and say “no.” But that would’ve meant hazarding being labeled “soft” and “quitter” for the rest of his career. Fat chance that was going to happen!
That’s why players never should be allowed to make such a determination. The need for protection from themselves (and team doctors) is well-documented.
