The Truth: Raptors are responsible for Kleiza's injury

[Matt52]

My biggest criticism is that management is allowing to guys play hurt. I don't believe that they were forced to play, I'm just shocked that they are allowed to after expressing pain. Plus the misdiagnoses was pathetic. Regarding Kleiza no one could find an issue with him in Toronto and yet he goes to Denver and it becomes obvious? Come on.

J. Richard Steadman, M.D. is a specialist knee surgeon, practising in Vail, Colorado and a Clinical Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He is best known medically for his work in the area of Microfracture surgery, and publicly for treating injured sports stars from around the world. (from wikipedia)

from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/front_page/6295385.stm

The guy is one of the best knee surgeons in the world and a leader in microfracture. Kleiza didn't go to get diagnosed. He went to have surgery from one of the best in the world.

Ask any professional athlete if they ever play 100%, pain-free. I guarantee you from basketball to hockey to baseball to football to rugby to golf to whatever they all say no. Except curling and darts.

[666]

This happens to every team in every sport. I can bet that most NBA teams have at least one player playing injured. We gave Sonny plenty of time to sit and recover and we've obviously given Reggie plenty of time for his foot to heal and we're giving Leandro time off. It's simply as case of needing players.

I'm sure every team has two or three 80% players on the court. But the Raptors' entire starting line-up and half the bench is 80%. Amir (back), Bargnani (achilles, knees), Calderon (ankle), Bayless (ankle/knee), Sonny Weems (back), Dorsey (hamstring), Barbosa (shoulder/wrist), Evans (foot), Davis (missed several months with knee issues), Peja (played first game missed the rest with knee issues, still injured in Dallas).

Derozan, Ajinca and Wright are literally our only healthy players. That is suspicious. Can all these injuries be a matter of chance? Idk that's tough.

[Rg1990]

I think it is chance. I mean the Raptors managed to stay pretty healthy last year so I don't know how reliable this source is. Golden State and Portland were the two most injured teams and no one has called them out. No one has called out the Portland staff on why Brandon Roy can't stay healthy or on why Greg Oden is injured again. Who knows?

[JalenRose5]

Linas Kleiza is a grown ass man who can make his own decisions! I'm pretty sure he played through injury but who the hell in the NBA isn't playing through injury and pain! I'm positive no one on the raptors would force him to play, he tried forcing the issue probably and got more injured! If that was the case this news would be in canadian press not coming from greece!

If I were the raptors, yes I would want him to try and play because I invested 6 million in him! It's not like I gave him 20 dollars! Stop babying these guys, they're grown ups making lots of money!

[coastal]

This is BS, I guarantee they knew about his injury and it was his choice to try and play.

Professional athletes have incredible access to medical imaging. Even CIS athletes will get an MRI within days, if not the day after, an injury. I highly doubt that the degree of Kleiza's injury was unknown to the team as it would readily show up on an MRI. He was probably given the pros and cons of continuing to play versus treating it conservatively versus having an operation.

The reality of meniscal tears is that very few of them are repairable (due to the blood supply). If they are causing a knee to lock or catch, cutting out the loose part is helpful.

In terms of microfracture for his osteochondral lesion, he basically had three options: 1) Suck it up and play as long as his symptoms allowed; 2) Rest it for a significant period of time and see if he feels better (not a good option for professional athletes); 3) get an operation with a prolonged recovery time.

My guess is he didn't like how such a long recovery time sounded and decided to see if he could play through it. After awhile he figured "I can't play through this, maybe I'll try resting for abit". When it didn't get better with resting, then he finally accepted that his best option was surgery.

[smushmush]

http://www.talkbasket.net/news/the-t...jury-4058.html

Wow... whether 100% true or not this is a major blow to the Raptors.

Look at our current roster and see how many players have missed games. Bargs, Amir, Bayless, Calderon playing through injuries. We might have the worst trainers in the league (Portland). Enjoy the all-star game Scott MacCulloch.

our medical staff is even incompetent too , hmmm that is not a surprise(see Peja's visit to the specialist while he was with the Raptors for a "second" opinion - that means the "first" opinion of the raptors was not conclusive).

[smushmush]

Great, even our doctors are made out to be incompetent....

Seriously, this is horrible, not only for the Raptors, but for all of Canada. You know some crazy American jingoists are gonna pick this up and talk about our "inferior" healthcare system, and that in turn is really gonna affect future players from wanting to come here.
Remember when we drafted Ed and journalists were asking him about tax laws? Now it's gonna be "So, do you trust their doctors to keep you healthy?"...

ugh... This is like a bad nightmare.

Canada's health care system is indeed inferior - a case of excess demand(universal healthcare) versus limited supply(less doctors here due to our bad renumeration system for doctors here compared to our US counterparts, very high standards to get into medical school here too contributes to the problem). Also, I don't think a huge part of the team being injured is a coincidence. just my 2 cents.

[Balls of Steel]

Maybe our biggest concern going forward is our medical staff. You guys are right in the fact we have huge health problems with our players. Maybe Kleiza is a lot better then we saw. Damn shame I have verbally abused him more than a few times due to his play.

Did not know our medical staff might have been mistreating him the whole time.

I'm one of the few that was really excited about Kleiza's arrival in TDot. Considering what has taken place, I'm not surprised that he struggled. I'm not saying I'm right but Kleiza is a lot better than what he's shown us so far.

[DonCarlos]

I wouldn't even go that far about the players.

Bargnani strains his achilles - could happen to anyone. Knees are sore - what basketball player doesn't have sore knees at some point?

Calderon has feet issues - the guy has had many issues, add the feet to the list.

I believe that Bargnani's achilles problems comes from running on the balls of his feet. The way that he runs puts a lot of strain on the stabilizer muscles in his heels.

I don't know what the deal is with Calderon's feet, maybe it's his training regimen. I've had knee problems for years and changed my workout routine to compensate and try to strengthen my hamstrings and hips to bring my knees back into alignment and ended up getting plantar fasciitis. Some days it feels fine, some days walking is excruciating, regardless of whatever stretching and rehab I do. -- Didn't Jose have plantar fasciitis in his rookie year?

[Bendit]

There has never been any similar complaint before to my knowledge about the organization in similar matters. If anything BC projects bending towards players in terms of contracts and movements. Taking such a serious accusation and running with it without a quote either by the player, trainer, doctors or management is not good reportage. I would wait for comment from some of the parties to respond...most importantly Kleiza...and they should do it asap before our friends at espn get a sniff...if not already.

[JalenRose5]

I agree, the organization is pretty rough on its players. they wanted Turkoglu to play after he had a headache from drinking too much. Even though he told them he was hurting, the trainers told him to suck it up! What a bunch of invalid trainers we have. It disgusts me! We should give Kleiza another 2 million on top of his 6 million salary to help him be comfortable while he's recovering. This way, more euro players will want to come play with the Raptors. I don't even care if the Raptors win, I just hope all the players are having fun!

[JoePanini]

Man, I feel bad for Kleiza. Shows his professionalism not complaining to the media about his pain. But seriously, how could they let this happen?

[666]

Decent news for now:

Injured Linas Kleiza Denies Report of Incompetence by Toronto's Medical Staff

Toronto forward Linas Kleiza on Saturday denied a Greek report that claimed he believes incompetence by Raptors medical officials contributed to why he last Wednesday underwent season-ending right microfracture knee surgery.

"I have no problems with Toronto's medical staff,'' Kleiza said in a phone interview with FanHouse from Vail, Colo., where he has remained since the surgery was performed by specialist Dr. Richard Steadman...

"I don't know where that came from,'' said Kleiza, who said he didn't know about the report until being informed by FanHouse. "I haven't talked to anybody from Greece... I think everything was done right (by Toronto's medical staff). I was talking to them all the time (about the knee injury).''

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/05/i...e-by-torontos/

[Bendit]

Canada's health care system is indeed inferior - a case of excess demand(universal healthcare) versus limited supply(less doctors here due to our bad renumeration system for doctors here compared to our US counterparts, very high standards to get into medical school here too contributes to the problem). Also, I don't think a huge part of the team being injured is a coincidence. just my 2 cents.

Thats a pretty blanket statement. Are you absolutely sure?

"Excess demand"...because of universal health care? It must then follow that the US citizen either is very healthy not to burden the health care system there or is it because 40% cant afford/dont have medical insurance.

Have a read ......

http://open.salon.com/blog/kanuk/201...th_care_system

[Matt52]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trueho...ory?id=6093645

Bosh may not be the best example but to think that the Raptors are the only team in the league who has players playing who are hurt or not 100% would be silly.

[RapRepRip]

Decent news for now:

Injured Linas Kleiza Denies Report of Incompetence by Toronto's Medical Staff



http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/05/i...e-by-torontos/

What an absolute professional Linas Kleiza is. It makes sense that his production was down in the last month or so, as he was trying to play through the pain. Was wondering why all of a sudden he could not make 3s that he would hit with regularity. I look forward to seeing him back healthy, and see what he can really do. But that is next season or beyond.

[grindhouse]

My question now is why would Greece put out a report like that.

[Matt52]

Another example of how teams do not force players to play:

Cleveland has already recommended surgery and out for atleast the rest of this season for Varejo but:

C Anderson Varejao (torn tendon in right foot) is awaiting another opinion on whether to have season-ending surgery. (Yahoo! Sports)

The guy is actually trying to comeback and play this year with torn ligaments in his foot.

[JoePanini]

My question now is why would Greece put out a report like that.

He was Olympiakos' most popular player, might have something to do with that.

[Captain Haddock]

He was Olympiakos' most popular player, might have something to do with that.

Or just to get traffic on their web site?