So often fans and the press have these revered images of professional athletes as untouchable, infallible, unstoppable forces of nature. At many points in time, players like Miami Heat SF LeBron James or Los Angeles Lakers SG Kobe Bryant make the game seem like it has slowed to their will as they weave, dip, and dart their way to another scoring title. However, even though so many times the invincibility of the NBA player is reinforced by the stardom in the league today, in a lockout shortened compact season, players are tired and it’s easy to see.
Early on Miami Heat SG Dwyane Wade was feeling it. He won a few games on his clutch play and contributed greatly to the Big 3 off Miami. After a little tweak in his legs slowed him down, he finally sprained an ankle which has sidelined him for quite a while now including during the embarrassing loss last night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Not only is the condensed season hurting the efforts of superstar players (specifically guards who play with no fear), it is also taking them off the floor altogether in the form of lower body injuries. While there is no excuse for any team led by Miami Heat SF LeBron James to lose to the Bucks, it is clear that on the back end of busy weeks exhaustion is taking its toll before teams even hit the floor, with the Heat an obvious showing of what can happen to even elite teams.
Of course, if residual injuries are not left over for the post-season, things will iron out come playoff time when each team plays their usual late season schedule, but the rapidity of the regular season will likely cleave its way through playoff rosters and keep big names on the floor sparingly.
The villain of course, is NBA Commissioner David Stern, whose background as a ruthless negotiator led to the cancellation of games in the Fall and Winter of 2011. While injuries are part of the game, NBA stars are dropping like flies. If it is not a leg, ankle, hamstring, or whatnot, it is a player stressing from the volume of shots taken between practice, shoot around, or games and losing the movement in their shoulders and upper extremities.
This of course is causing the Miami Heat, specifically, to take additional precautions with SG Dwyane Wade.
Miami understands that regardless of seeding they can run with anyone in the NBA at full strength, so they are intelligently keeping Wade off the floor until he is safe to play at an elite level. Anyone who even utters a murmur of the Heat without Dwyane Wade should be institutionalized. While LeBron James is in fact better on the floor creating his own shots and managing the ball without Wade, having the ability to have an entire game with two top five players alternating on the floor is a luxury no other NBA team has today.
The shortened season is carving a swath through the muscle fibers of these NBA players, but come post-season, everything should fall into place as these players vie for an NBA title and a well deserved Summer to rest and relax.
Tags: David Stern, Derrick Rose, dwyane wade, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James