Zydrunas Ilgauskas's Legacy

[JonFromVA]

Brian Windhorst on the Hoop Collective pod cast mentioned when talking about Porzingis and the consequences of playing through injury, that he knew of a player who took injections in order to play with cracked ribs.

It immediately made me think of Zydunas Ilgauskas in the 2009 ECF, whenever Dwight posted him up in that series, Z would give way like a marshmallow and Dwight would dunk on him. It's one thing playing with bruised ribs like Allen reportedly was struggling with, a powerful pain killer might have given him the courage to stand his ground; but a cracked rib can lead to a punctured lung.

So, this seems to fit.

Maybe the real story will eventually leak. Windy didn't want to mention a name, he said it was the player's story to tell, but given they are 7'3" players from neighboring Baltic states - his mind may have formed that connection.

I bring this up because I've known for years that Z was struggling with that matchup due to an injury, and I thought it was always a shame to hear him disparaged for being a softy when he'd always done a good job fighting strong C's. It may have been worse than I imagined.

I suppose this seemed like just a drop in the bucket to Z compared to all the other injuries he endured during his career.

[JujitsuFlip]

I met big Z once at US Bank Arena, shook his hand. He was exactly a foot taller than me and my hand felt like a baby in his.

It put into perspective anyone woman i ever dated was at least a foot shorter than me. I'm like wow is this what they see/how they feel when we are walking around together lol