The Toronto Raptor’s new shooting guard, Danny Green recently opened up on the premiere of his ‘Inside the Green Room with Danny Green’ podcast, about his injury problems from this past season. He hurt himself against the Boston Celtics back in early December, was eventually cleared, but in hindsight, playing through it was the wrong decision. Green was quoted as saying:
“I get an MRI the next day,” Green said. “[It says] slight strain, take a couple weeks off. So we do the rehab, do everything we’re supposed to do. After some time, it healed. I tried to play again. Certain days, I’d have bad days. Some days would be good. I’d feel it. My agent [Joe Branch said], ‘Maybe we should get a second opinion.’ I didn’t want to because I have full faith and believe in the Spurs’ staff. They’ve always been great to me. They’ve always done right by me. They’ve always done a hell of a job.”
And he continued:
“Throughout the season, we monitored it. But we never went back to check on it again because so many other injuries had happened,” Green said. “I should’ve, could’ve gotten a second opinion. So I see where Kawhi is coming from when he got his second opinion. Because a lot of times, you’ll get information from outside sources, and not saying the Spurs’ staff is not up to par. It’s just that not everybody is a specialist in every area. So it’s not like they’re a specialist in the groin area or a sports hernia. To go to a guy who may be in Philly to get a second opinion shouldn’t hurt. That being said, at the end of the season, come to find out — it could’ve happened that day or that playoff series against Golden State — but we don’t know. So end of the season, I had to get a MRI when you get your exit physicals. A strain was still there, a little tear. Since then, I’ve been rehabbing it basically. Now they’re passing that information on to Toronto. But we don’t know how long I’ve been playing with this strain because we hadn’t really circled back or focused on it because of so many other injuries that were happening throughout the season. A second opinion could’ve helped. But they did a great job, they did everything they could. But I think it would’ve been nice to see a specialist just to see if there was another angle, another view. Just because Kawhi went and got a second opinion, you can’t knock him for that.”
His comments bring light back onto the Kawhi Leonard injury situation. If you don’t remember what happened, Leonard missed all but nine games this past season because of injury. He opened up the season hurt, was cleared to play, played nine games and got hurt again, and was eventually cleared again. However, he got a second opinion this time and decided to sit out for the rest of the season because he wasn’t ready to come back.
There are different sides of support on the situation. Some are pro-Spurs and believe Leonard’s injury was not as bad as it’s been made out to be, but he just wanted to get out of San Antonio. Others are pro-Kawhi and support him taking care of his body. But may were, and still are shocked and did not know what to make of everything.
No matter what side you are one, what Danny Green said brings up an excellent point: it doesn’t hurt to get another opinion. In essence, Green has vindicated Kawhi’s decisions.
The Spurs made a mistake in diagnosing Green, so the veteran played through it, but he ended up making it worse. This proves, and Green reiterates the same belief, that you can never go wrong with double-checking with another professional when it comes to your health.
You need to be extra sure as an athlete because it is your life’s profession. You have every right and are obligated, to put yourself first in this type of situation. Kawhi went to get a second opinion and was told not to resume playing, contradicting the Spurs’ clearance to play.
When you have conflicting reports like this, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, the Spurs had cleared Leonard once already, but he got hurt. So, you cannot blame him for seeking an outside opinion; he did not want to risk his health, especially with a huge payday on the horizon
The small forward have made over $200 million with the Spurs and wanted to protect himself for that. However, he eventually turned that down because he stopped trusting the franchise and wanted out.
Former NFL tight end Shannan Sharpe implied, on Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, that team doctors are usually looking to get the athlete back on the court as soon as possible, even if you necessarily should not be playing. This brings up the battle of ‘should you play‘ vs. ‘could you play.‘
Everyone, not just athletes, has a different pain tolerance and we have to respect that. What someone else may find painful, you may not, and vice versa. Who knows how bad Kawhi’s injury was. You cannot definitively say how bad it was. No one but he truly knows. One doctor is saying he can play, but another is saying he can’t.
Maybe he could have, perhaps not. But there was one professional that said that he ‘shouldn’t.‘
Point guard Isaiah Thomas is an excellent example of a guy who could have played, and did when he probably shouldn’t have. He ended up costing himself millions of dollars and had to settle for a one-year $2 million deal. Thomas believes if he did not play hurt for the Celtics in the playoffs, he would be getting paid.
Grant Hill’s physical ability to tarnished due to injuries and now you wonder if the medical staffs didn’t give him the adequate time to recover. And now you have a guy, who also played for the Spurs, explain that getting a second opinion would have been the smart thing to do. Whatever you think of how Kawhi Leonard handled the situation, he did what he felt was right, and it turned out to be the correct decision.
