When a player suffers a devastating injury or has a debilitating condition, one of two things usually happen: he works his way back and comes back stronger than ever, or shows that he is no longer the player he once was.
There are different ways of going about such situations. When you look at a guy like Amare Stoudemire, whose troublesome knees seem to require surgery every time he seems ready to get back into the swing of things, he finds a way to remain positive and work hard to come back, no matter how bleak things appear. Then you have guys like Tracy McGrady, who realized that his best days are behind him and chose to move on from the game of basketball. Not everyone can be as upbeat as Stoudemire when things aren’t progressing, and we’ll learn that Andrew Bynum is a prime example of that below.
STORY OF THE DAY:
Bynum surprised us all by making himself available to play from day one this season. While still a presence because of his size, he clearly hasn’t been the player he once was. In limited minutes, the center is shooting 28 percent in four games, and recently questioned whether his explosiveness would ever come back. He is going through a personal struggle right now, and has even contemplated retirement. Easy to consider when you no longer have the passion to play the game anymore, which is what Bynum expressed in the following piece by Jason Lloyd of Beacon Journal:
“This is Bynum’s new reality. He should be entering his prime years of basketball, instead he has contemplated walking away from it all. “I’m a shell of myself on the court right now,” a melancholy Bynum said Thursday after practice. “I’m struggling mentally. I’m trying.”… He admitted to thoughts of retirement after last season and even still now. He is frustrated with the recurring pain in his knees, with the fact he can no longer do the things he used to on a basketball court. Then he conceded he has lost his joy for the game of basketball, and he’s still searching to rediscover it. There is no guarantee he ever will. Even more startling for the Cavs, no one knows how long he’ll spend searching for it. “It was a thought, it was a serious thought. Still is,” Bynum said regarding retirement. “At the moment, it’s tough to enjoy the game because of how limited I am physically. I’m still sort of working through that.”
He can’t really jump or slide right now, which is changing the way he must play the game.
“Battling pain is annoying,” he said. “I’m not able to do the things I used to be able to do and it’s frustrating.
“I feel like I can still be a double-double guy in this league, but it’s just going to take some modifications to my game and whether or not I want to accept the challenge and do that.”
Hearing an athlete say they’ve lost the passion to play because of a debilitating condition is a sad, sad thing, and that’s the state that Bynum is in right now. While everyone is hoping for the best regarding the situation, if he still can’t jump or slide without feeling pain in his knees after over a year of rehabbing, you have to wonder if the once-dominant center may be better off walking away before he suffers a devastating injury while trying to do something he’s no longer capable of doing.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Mike D’Antoni elected to foul Dwight Howard down the stretch of Thursday’s game, and it worked to perfection as the center went a costly five-of-12 in the final few minutes from the stripe. After the game, the coach explained why he kept playing Howard last season even though it was clearly detrimental to the team, from Mark Medina of Daily News:
“Well, We had to try to resign him,” D’Antoni said with a chuckle.
CLIPS OF THE DAY:
– Some say that Howard ran away from the situation in Los Angeles over the summer. On Thursday against his old team, he literally ran away from the Lakers to avoid getting intentionally fouled:
– J.J. Redick saw an open lane to attack on a fastbreak situation, but saw LeBron James trailing the play and wanted no part of the King. He pulled up for the mid-range instead, and missed:
– Steve Blake hit the game-winning 3-pointer against the Rockets on Thursday. The question is, how did he get so open? Steve Kerr thought that there was a miscommunication between Jeremy Lin and Patrick Beverley on the screens, but watch closely and you’ll see there was not much they could do. Steve Nash basically bear hugged Lin to prevent him from going anywhere, and Pau Gasol set a sneaky moving screen on Beverley:
SOME NOTABLES:
– Golden State Warriors, known for being one of the most exciting teams in the league offensively, has the second best defensive rating as of Friday. With Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala leading the way, there is reason to believe that they could end up being a top 5 defensive team this season. The Warriors are the only team in the top 6 in both offensive and defensive rating, something no one could ever have envisioned just two seasons ago.
– Beverley was back in the starting lineup to replace Lin against the Lakers on Thursday. He shot one-of-10 from the field. In his two starts against the Charlotte Bobcats and Lakers, the Rockets have averaged 97 points. In the four games that Lin started, the team averaged 112.75 points. It’s may be a coincidence, but Beverley is not the threat that Lin is on the offensive end, which is a problem when you’re starting two lumberjacks – Howard and Omer Asik – who have trouble generating points on their own. It’s a situation worth keeping an eye on.
– Everyone was mesmerized by the Philadelphia 76ers to begin the season, but it may be the Orlando Magic to really keep an eye on as a surprise team in the East. Nikola Vucevic is a big reason why they are making some serious noise in the early going. They also sit as the fourth best team in the league in both defensive rating and rebounding, suggesting that their run may be a lot more sustainable than the 76ers.
OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE: