durden_tyler wrote:ballzboyee wrote:Hopefully, at least, the days of playing players through lower leg injuries are over. I had a gut feeling this would happen as soon as they announced he was playing for game six. They rolled the dice twice in game 7, and they got burned. Not only did the Pacers not win a championship, which was probably going to happen anyway because OKC was just the better team, but now the future of your star player is uncertain. I would never mortgage the future of an all-nba level player for a couple of games in the playoffs, and I don't care if it is the Finals.
Such a tough decision really (for the player). You never know if this is your last shot at reaching the title round, nothing is guaranteed especially if you're not an elite superstar (like Haliburton). As competitors, "if you can walk, you can play" mantra is understandable too, these are hungry humans after all and can't blame them if they do want to play. For context with Hali, he also got his generational money already too so again, i understand where he was coming from (whatever the advice of doctors/team/family was, he was vetoing those calls for him not to play) and a Game 7 opportunity obviously added to that personal pressure of showing up/playing.
Sure, I understand. As a competitor the player wants to be on the floor. The coach, the GM, and the owner they want an NBA championship trophy. Who doesn't? However, I don't think any franchise would ever jeopardize the health of a player by playing them with an injury if it were the first game of the season or any other regular season game. They would not do it for an all-star game, and I don't even think a team would risk a player for a game 7 in the first round of the playoffs. No matter the importance of the game, the calculus doesn't change. You are still talking about risking the long-term health of the player. No matter how important one particular game is that never changes. So if a franchise would not risk a player suffering traumatic injury in all of those other situations, then it should not even be discussion at any point. From an ethical medical standpoint, the player has to sit. Sorry, I know it sucks, but that's just sports. The other factor here is that injured players aren't usually very effective because... they are injured. Likely outcome here is that you play him anyway, he's not really effective, and you get the catastrophic secondary injury on top of everything.
In any case, with Boston's injury situation if I am the Pacers I am already thinking we are almost guaranteed an ECF spot. Pacers likely would have had to win maybe one tough series against the Knicks and they are back in the Finals next year. Hali has to sit, and you lose in 7 to a 68-win team. Not the end of the world.
