the TJ mystery

[Shaazzam]

The thing that should be noted is he already spent a year off from his professional career with John Lucas to "reshape" his game and focus on his weaknesses before he came back from injury.

I'm not trying to troll. I keep an interest in him b/c he's a former player and one of my favorite players. But the fact he is doing this whole John Lucas training, again, should be very alarming.

How many times does he have to step away from the game to "re-train"?

Re-shape, re-train, I think it is erroneous to get caught up in this train of thought.

Possibly you are correct in that TJ is done for the year, we'll find out if he comes back this season. But that has little to do with what John Lucas does.

This guy is a Rehab guru, whether it be strictly physical, mental, addiction based, etc. TJ already has an established relationship with him and regardless of what part of his being needs it, Lucas will be able to aid him in preparing him to play.

[Darrick Martin]

TJ's probably at the beach sipping on pina colada's as we speak

[Raps_Swingman]

The thing with long term injured athletes is they lose connection to the team. They lose connection to the sport and in some cases that ends careers. Sport psychologists have been working on this for years, but there is no good way for an injured ahtlete to be treated. Sometimes the person is ready mentally before they are physically, leading to further injury or in TJ's case it goes the other way.

From personal experience, rushing this is not the right answer. Mentally and physically TJ needs to be healthy and in synergy of the two parts to return to the court.

[inrapscity]

Isn't it obvious? BC's purposely driving up Jose's value and going to trade him for Josh Smith.

[bill russell]

I just read a bunch of stuff about TJ's injury when he was with the bucks. His recent problems are almost a replay of those except that the injury was different (spinal contusion last time, followed by surgery). He took a long time to come back after he was cleared to play, as he's doing now. John Lucas said a big part of rehab was overcoming the fear of falling again, learning how to fall and how to protect himself. He worked on his shot so he wasn't so dependent on penetration. Tried to change his game to accomodate his health. Sounds like he was working like crazy in Houston with Lucas. I think it's reasonable to assume he's working hard right now.

[C.Boshly]

I just find the whole TJ situation strange. To my understanding TJ is physically fine and has been advised by doctors that this injury, while scary, does not change his situation.

How long can TJ sit out until he is mentally strong enough to get back on the court? I just cannot think of any pro athlete who has sat out two months of the season because they are mentally unable to play the game. I just cannot think of any basketball player who had to change their game out of fear that they may injure themselves when physically they are fine.

That kinda attitude does not seem to constitute the make-up of a professional athlete to me. I fear that EastSidesBuckFan may be on to something here. Afterall he has seen this story before.

Just because I am on the topic did anyone else think that Al Horford got off far to light on the TJ hit. He was extremely careless and was just letting his hands go free without any caution. I hate to use a hockey example to illustrate my point but in the NHL if a player is careless with his stick and hits another player they will be punished. There needs to be some accountability for a silly play like that.

[Santoki]

I think Smitch summed up the whole TJ situation best. This is paraphrasing: If TJ can't be TJ, then what's the point?

I'm not so sure the whole issue is about being mentally prepared to play his style of basketball. I mean, this injury happened on a fast-break lay-up. The one before that happened when he was taking a charge. It's not like he's going into the paint and getting clobbered by the trees.

It was a fluke incident, and something you can never really prepare for.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

I think Smitch summed up the whole TJ situation best. This is paraphrasing: If TJ can't be TJ, then what's the point?

I'm not so sure the whole issue is about being mentally prepared to play his style of basketball. I mean, this injury happened on a fast-break lay-up. The one before that happened when he was taking a charge. It's not like he's going into the paint and getting clobbered by the trees.

It was a fluke incident, and something you can never really prepare for.

and if he hadn't slowed down to try to put a move on Horford that on the fast break, he would have never got hit. No one's catching TJ on the fast break when he has a step unless Tj wants them to, in order to draw a foul or pwn someone.

[emfive]

I think Smitch summed up the whole TJ situation best. This is paraphrasing: If TJ can't be TJ, then what's the point?

I'm not so sure the whole issue is about being mentally prepared to play his style of basketball. I mean, this injury happened on a fast-break lay-up. The one before that happened when he was taking a charge. It's not like he's going into the paint and getting clobbered by the trees.

It was a fluke incident, and something you can never really prepare for.

That is exactly correct. A player has to be prepared to play his game, especially when it is the sort of game the TJ plays. Mental preparation and physical preparation go hand in hand (as msantos was suggesting).

I do not think that he is any more physically prepared to play than mentally prepared. It is my experience that the two go together.

I would like to have a nickel for every time a coach claimed an athlete was mentally not prepared to perform when the question in fact was his physical preparation.