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The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse

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The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#1 » by Chocolate City Jordanaire » Sun Dec 9, 2012 5:40 pm

Nene - Plantar fasciitis to the nth degree - Obviously, a long-term, career-debilitating injury. $50M left to pay
Booker - Plantar fasciitis times seven - Already a career-limiting red flag
John Wall - Patella stress injury. Eight weeks … or eighteen? How long until season-ending surgery?
Trevor Ariza - Calf strain (a tribute to Andray Blatche). What a tease of good play before the curse struck.
A.J. Price - Broken hand. Yep, he was balling and the curse hit again.

Whether it was Arenas or Butler, the Wizards had someone injured most of the time during their 40-plus, playoff team era.

When Flip Saunders came, Mike Miller was balling only to be injured. Jamison was injured. The guy he counted on, Andray Blatche, was taken out by a calf strain.

This season, for all Randy's coaching, Nene is not well. His perimeter players have been fragile. Emeka Okafor's game has been shot by prior injuries IMO. Ariza and Price were giving solid contributions. The instant it looked as if the Wizards had some continuity under Wittman, more injuries occur.

This team has beyond bad luck. I'm wondering about a curse ….
Bye bye Beal.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#2 » by hands11 » Sun Dec 9, 2012 7:21 pm

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:Nene - Plantar fasciitis to the nth degree - Obviously, a long-term, career-debilitating injury. $50M left to pay
Booker - Plantar fasciitis times seven - Already a career-limiting red flag
John Wall - Patella stress injury. Eight weeks … or eighteen? How long until season-ending surgery?
Trevor Ariza - Calf strain (a tribute to Andray Blatche). What a tease of good play before the curse struck.
A.J. Price - Broken hand. Yep, he was balling and the curse hit again.

Whether it was Arenas or Butler, the Wizards had someone injured most of the time during their 40-plus, playoff team era.

When Flip Saunders came, Mike Miller was balling only to be injured. Jamison was injured. The guy he counted on, Andray Blatche, was taken out by a calf strain.

This season, for all Randy's coaching, Nene is not well. His perimeter players have been fragile. Emeka Okafor's game has been shot by prior injuries IMO. Ariza and Price were giving solid contributions. The instant it looked as if the Wizards had some continuity under Wittman, more injuries occur.

This team has beyond bad luck. I'm wondering about a curse ….


Injuries happen. Look around the league.

Wall not worried just yet. He is young and to my knowledge he doesn't have an injury history.
Booker. I fear he will always be injured. Some players are just like that
Price. He got his hand jammed going for a rebound. It happens.
Trevor A. Not sure about that. Kevin had a calf also. Seems that is a stretching issue.
Nene is a concern but I'm not sold this is a permanent thing. Lets see with a full summer off
Okafor He just in not a fluid player. Injuries and age may have caught up with him.

Gil He did that to himself by overworking it to soon. Playing on blacktop. Running with the shoot on his back
CB was always injured and the same happened after he left.
AJ has a small injury and was brought back to soon and instantly played max minutes. Good ol EFJ

Anyway, the big blunder(s) of the off season seem to be not keeping Dray another year and not just buying out Lewis. I'm cool with Trevor A on the team but that is not worth having Okafor for two years at 13 and 14M. If they weren't so dead set on getting rid of Dray, they could have bought out Lewis. Ted just didn't want to amnesty Dray and buy out Lewis. Well, they shouldn't have amnestied Dray.

So now we are forced to play Okafor to try to raise his value so we can get ride of him for another crap player on a shorter contract. Okafor would be a fine player to have on the team... for 5M a year though.

Regarding Dray. Ted and EG got it wrong. The fans got it wrong and most of the board got it wrong.

So its another tank year. May as well play the younger players more. Get Ves back out there.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#3 » by Knighthonor » Sun Dec 9, 2012 10:20 pm

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:Nene - Plantar fasciitis to the nth degree - Obviously, a long-term, career-debilitating injury. $50M left to pay
Booker - Plantar fasciitis times seven - Already a career-limiting red flag
John Wall - Patella stress injury. Eight weeks … or eighteen? How long until season-ending surgery?
Trevor Ariza - Calf strain (a tribute to Andray Blatche). What a tease of good play before the curse struck.
A.J. Price - Broken hand. Yep, he was balling and the curse hit again.

Whether it was Arenas or Butler, the Wizards had someone injured most of the time during their 40-plus, playoff team era.

When Flip Saunders came, Mike Miller was balling only to be injured. Jamison was injured. The guy he counted on, Andray Blatche, was taken out by a calf strain.

This season, for all Randy's coaching, Nene is not well. His perimeter players have been fragile. Emeka Okafor's game has been shot by prior injuries IMO. Ariza and Price were giving solid contributions. The instant it looked as if the Wizards had some continuity under Wittman, more injuries occur.

This team has beyond bad luck. I'm wondering about a curse ….


come on pal. you seeing the bad in this, not the good.

Wizards get shot at all star draft potential.

last person other than Davis like that was Rose

Wizards, get to tanking baby!!
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#4 » by Nivek » Sun Dec 9, 2012 11:26 pm

There is a curse, the Curse of Les Boulez.

I believe I've chronicled the origins of the curse previously on these boards, perhaps under another guise. Les Boulez was a French hunter/trapper and illegitimate half brother of the composer Pierre Boulez.

Pierre apparently had some connection with Abe Pollin and encouraged Abe to change the team's name as far back as 1976. When Les got wind of this, he immediately started pushing for "Beavers". No, not for the frat boy puns and great headlines, but because he made his fortune (in Canada) on beaver pelts and greatly admired the animals for their dam building and dentistry.

Abe and Pierre refused, although Pierre kept pushing for that name change. This infuriated Les, who swore revenge. After years of searching for just the right punishment, he gave an Arapho medicine man, whose name he never revealed, a ton of beaver pelts to curse the Washington Bullets.

The curse worked so well that the team has sucked ever since. It was the curse, far more than the lobbying of Pierre Boulez, that eventually led Abe to change the name. The name change didn't break the curse, unfortunately, because Les had it done to the FRANCHISE, not just the Bullets.

When you know the full story, the layers of humor in Kornheiser's original "Curse of Les Boulez" phrase becomes readily apparent. Many folks think Kornheiser was just making up a clever phrase. Nope. That Arapho medicine man literally called it "The Curse of Les Boulez."

I'm still researching the curse to see how it can be lifted. I have a team of investigators working to find the identity of the medicine man, as well as what I believe will be the Holy Grail of this quest: the scroll inscribed with the precise wording of the curse.

As a footnote -- little known fact that Pierre Boulez was actually the musical genius who wrote "That's the Reason I'm A Bullets Fan." It was kind of an F you to his half brother, which of course backfired. He refused credit for his work in the masterpiece, perhaps because of the powerful curse he helped bring upon the franchise through his arrogance.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#5 » by Chocolate City Jordanaire » Mon Dec 10, 2012 12:34 am

RG III went to a Wizards game the other night. It was only a matter of time before he got hurt.
Bye bye Beal.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#6 » by MikeTheKid » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:15 am

Once EG is fired everyone will magically heal up!
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#7 » by hands11 » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:17 am

Heard he already had an MRI is he is ok. Just a strain.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#8 » by dangermouse » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:26 am

Wow, thanks for the post Nivek. Les Boulez sounds like a real arsehole. Beavers are pretty cool I guess, but Washington Beavers just doesnt sound right.

That is legitimately worse than Bobcats.
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long suffrin' boulez fan wrote:
NatP4 wrote:but why would the pacers want Mahinmi's contract


Well, in fairness, we took Mike Pence off their hands. Taking back Mahinmi is the least they can do.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#9 » by Tiny Too » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:49 am

Think of the possibilities for the cheerleaders if the team was called the Beavers....
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#10 » by Tiny Too » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:52 am

If you've ever been skiing in Beaver Creek, Colorado, there is a liquor store there called Beaver Liquors!!
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#11 » by Nivek » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:47 pm

dangermouse wrote:Wow, thanks for the post Nivek. Les Boulez sounds like a real arsehole. Beavers are pretty cool I guess, but Washington Beavers just doesnt sound right.

That is legitimately worse than Bobcats.


From what my investigators have been able to dig up, the Boulez brothers -- both jerks, at least to each other. Pierre's "being an ass" seemed to be reserved mostly for Les, although he did have at least one altercation with a teacher early in his composing career.

Les seemed like the kind of guy who's just an argument waiting to happen. My investigators say he had countless disagreements, some of which turned violent. Les was a world-class carrier of grudges. "Forgive and forget" was anathema to him. His personal philosophy appeared to be more like: Win! That means, strike quick and hard, take your revenge first, cheat if necessary. And, never -- EVER -- forget an enemy because you never know when you might have to hit him again.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#12 » by payitforward » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:26 pm

Nivek wrote:
dangermouse wrote:Wow, thanks for the post Nivek. Les Boulez sounds like a real arsehole. Beavers are pretty cool I guess, but Washington Beavers just doesnt sound right.

That is legitimately worse than Bobcats.


From what my investigators have been able to dig up, the Boulez brothers -- both jerks, at least to each other. Pierre's "being an ass" seemed to be reserved mostly for Les, although he did have at least one altercation with a teacher early in his composing career.

Les seemed like the kind of guy who's just an argument waiting to happen. My investigators say he had countless disagreements, some of which turned violent. Les was a world-class carrier of grudges. "Forgive and forget" was anathema to him. His personal philosophy appeared to be more like: Win! That means, strike quick and hard, take your revenge first, cheat if necessary. And, never -- EVER -- forget an enemy because you never know when you might have to hit him again.

I can share some personal experience here. I've listened to Pierre's composition Le Marteau sans Maitre literally dozens of times, and it has given me a little-known syndrome: "plain-tar fixieitis", which prevents my feet from getting off the ground. I'm still able to dunk the ball but only if the basket has been brought down below chest height -- am turning to Elliot Carter's music to accomplish the latter.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#13 » by Chocolate City Jordanaire » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:46 pm

Nivek wrote:Les seemed like the kind of guy who's just an argument waiting to happen. My investigators say he had countless disagreements, some of which turned violent. Les was a world-class carrier of grudges. "Forgive and forget" was anathema to him. His personal philosophy appeared to be more like: Win! That means, strike quick and hard, take your revenge first, cheat if necessary. And, never -- EVER -- forget an enemy because you never know when you might have to hit him again.


We have since learned how history can repeat itself. Long before Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton had their dispute, Les Boulez first carried an instrument of destruction into his workplace.

Image

Unfortunately, Les became a personal inspiration of Javaris Crittenton. "Strike quick and hard, take your revenge first" is tattooed all across the back of both of Javaris' arms. "L B" in honor of Les Boulez is tattooed on his upper back. And the deringer above, with the inscription, "BANG!" is tattooed from the middle of his back to just above his coccyx.

We have to learn from history to not repeat it. Don't get too many tattoos, especially those of hand guns. Also, don't be anything like Les Boulez. :)
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#14 » by Mickstix » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:48 am

All the injuries, year after year.. Anyone know if they've ever considered revamping the conditioning program, physicians, etc.?? Redskins are in the same boat, year after year with "more" than their share of season enders, undiagnosed/misdiagnosed, and all around fluky injuries.. Sometimes a fresh perspective can do wonders! Yet they seem to stay the (same ol') course year after year..
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#15 » by verbal8 » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:58 am

I don't think the skins have an unusual number of injuries. There are a lot more in the NFL.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#16 » by montestewart » Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:16 am

Has there been any compilation of injuries by team (players injured, days/games lost to injuries, injuries to starters vs. reserves, etc.) that might tell Wizards fans exactly how bad the Bullets/Wizards injury luck and/or medical staff incompetence really is? I could swear I've seen something like that somewhere.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#17 » by Nivek » Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:29 am

montestewart wrote:Has there been any compilation of injuries by team (players injured, days/games lost to injuries, injuries to starters vs. reserves, etc.) that might tell Wizards fans exactly how bad the Bullets/Wizards injury luck and/or medical staff incompetence really is? I could swear I've seen something like that somewhere.


Yep, Kevin Pelton did the work for the past three seasons. From 2009-2012, Wizards lost the 4th most games due to injury, 2nd most minutes, but just the 5th fewest lost wins. So, Wizards hit by lots of injuries, but they didn't matter all that much because while the players were expected to consume a lot of minutes, they sucked anyway.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#18 » by Chocolate City Jordanaire » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:51 pm

Thanks, Nivek. Pelton's article for BP shows Phoenix at the top or second in fewest injuries. I recall Shaq praising the medical staff of the Suns. This is something a team owner like Ted should consider to protect his investments, his players.

Image

The Suns' training staff has earned a legendary reputation for keeping players healthy and productive, particularly vets like Hill, Shaq and Nash. Here's how they do it.


Read more: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/04/05/s ... z2EkoRPjQq

Frye explained that his right butt cheek shut off, which then affected his thigh and his hamstring and threw off his balance and ultimately his shot. Once the Suns’ training staff fixed the first issue, Frye felt –- and played – like a different player.

“They’re geniuses about this kind of stuff, so they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this isn’t working, that’s why this is,’” Frye said. “Just so, so technical it’s ridiculous.”

The Suns’ training staff has earned a reputation as the league’s best thanks to an unorthodox style focused on preventing injuries through constant surveillance and integrating the latest medical research.

That has been the formula for doing the unthinkable — keeping Steve Nash healthy enough to play like an All-Star at 38, transforming the formerly brittle Grant Hill into a 39-year-old iron man (his recent knee injury notwithstanding) and eeking one last All-Star season out of Shaq, who played more games for Phoenix in 2008-09 than he had since 1999-00 and looked retired after he left – while keeping the rest of the squad as healthy as any team in the NBA.

“They’re by far the best training staff,” Frye said. “You can ask anybody who’s played here. It’s just the honest truth.”

So how do they do it?

Shaq dubbed the Suns’ training staff the YUMS, which stands for Young Unorthodox Medical Staff.

But to head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson, the Suns’ methods only seemed unorthodox to Shaq because he wasn’t used to them.

“To him it’s unorthodox, to us it’s regular science,” Nelson said. “It’s regular kinesiology, physiology, functional anatomy.”


The Suns’ Moneyball

The Suns’ training staff aims to stay ahead of the curve, which is why this season Phoenix became one of four NBA teams to introduce a Cryosauna (Suns.com likens its look to “a refrigerator for people”) into its players’ recovery routine at a cost of around $50,000, The Arizona Republic reported.


Pretty cool that if you read to the bottom of the Sun's report above it mentions Kevin Pelton's article!
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#19 » by Nivek » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:58 pm

What a weird concept: preventing injuries by watching carefully and applying the latest medical research. Way too radical an approach for the Wizards.

Of course, even the Suns training staff transplanted to the Wizards wouldn't matter much because of Les Boulez's curse. Might be worth a try anyway.

At least until we can figure out how to lift The Curse.
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Re: The Injuries. Come On Man It Must Be a Curse 

Post#20 » by Chocolate City Jordanaire » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:12 pm

More on that wierd concept, Nivek.

Image

Suns trainer Aaron Nelson says he looks for movement dysfunction in players and then tries to prevent injuries before they happen.


While Suns head trainer Aaron Nelson is quick to credit the commitment both Nash and Hill have put in to their health, the Suns' success is built largely on a philosophical approach that differs from many training staffs in the NBA. "Most teams treat athletes from a regional perspective," Hill said. "If your knee hurts, they treat the knee. [The Suns'] approach is to try to find the root of the problem, what's causing the knee to hurt. It might be that the opposite ankle's flexibility is not good, or your hamstrings are tight, or the SI (Sacroiliac) joint in your lower back is off. They spend a lot of time digging into your body and it involves a lot of manual therapy. It's part art, part science."

The Suns' strategy emerged in 2000, when, after seven years as an assistant, Nelson became the team's head trainer and began working with Michael Clark, a recognized physical therapist at the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

"I was looking for some way to change not only how we treat and rehab injuries but how we prevent injuries," said Nelson. We've always looked at mechanisms of injury regardless of philosophy. But a lot of injuries are chronic in nature.

"Say a guy rolls his ankle: Outside of treating the ankle for swelling and maybe some ligament or tendon injury, we'll also look at what he may be predisposed to going forward. Could it be something that turns into plantar fasciitis, anterior knee pain, low back pain? And maybe it is something from that specific area of the foot and ankle, but a lot of times we'll see changes in the hips, glutes strength or pelvic rotation. So we'll constantly reassess and make sure everything is moving the way it is supposed to move."

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z2EkxCMaCp


That is so unlike the Wizards modus operandi. Proactive, cutting edge stuff. Wow.

**** In addition to having cutting edge medical personnel, physical therapists,trainers, and nutritionists for the physical well being of players; why not take care of their mental and spiritual well being also? Teams IMO should also employe sports psychologists who help players keep their mojo, and licensed clinical social workers not beholden to management to counsel players with any life issues that pop up from time to time; as well as approved, licensed clergy of various faiths on speed dial.

If any team had each of those key team support systems as part of their infrastructure, in addition with having good scouting, a competent GM, and a good coach; they would stay at or near the top. It is penny wise and pound foolish to pay athletes millions upon millions but not protect an investment in them by having those types of support available. All kinds of loss prevention could be covered.

Nivek, I would even employ tutors for a team. (Great gig for CCJ!) Players need to be educated on all sorts of topics. The NBA could borrow some of the aspects of European clubs that routinely draft very young players. NBA players are entering the league relatively highly physically developed but in many cases chronologically very young and immature. Instead of calling a guy a knucklehead, part of the draft process should entail psychological testing to see which players have a desire to be lifelong learners.

I value young players like Vesely for their potential beyond the court. Teams need to do so as well.
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