San Antonio Spurs guard T.J. Ford, who had an injury scare last week, is leaving basketball and may not return.
The Spurs announced Monday that Ford, one of their backup point guards, is taking an indefinite leave of absence from basketball activities this season. He suffered a stinger in Wednesday’s home win over New York, when he was hit in the back by Knicks guard Baron Davis and accidentally kicked in the head by teammate Tiago Splitter.
Ford remained on the floor for several minutes before being helped off.
Folks feared the worst when Ford went down because he has a long history of back and neck injuries. During the 2003-204 season while playing for Milwaukee, Ford was fouled by Minnesota’s Mark Madsen and suffered a spinal cord contusion.
The injury forced Ford to miss the entire 2004-05 season before being cleared to return by doctors.
“While this was a tough decision to make, it is what is best for me and my family at this time,” Ford said in a statement. “I have been blessed to play alongside wonderful teammates for great coaches and organizations from high school, to college, to the NBA. Regardless of what the future holds, I will carry the experiences, the friendships and the memories with me forever.”
That sounds an awful lot like Ford saying good-bye. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s statement had a similar tone.
“I congratulate him on all that he has achieved as a player and fully support the difficult decision he was forced to make,” Popovich said. “T.J. has a bright future ahead of him and will always be a member of the Spurs family.”
Ford was averaging 3.6 points and 3.2 assists in 14 games this season. Most of his playing time came early, when Gary Neal was recovering from an appendectomy.
In eight seasons with Milwaukee, Toronto, Indiana and San Antonio, Ford averaged 11.2 points and 5.8 assists in 429 games.