Tuesday Notebook: Jermaine’s Second Opinion, Wiz Banged Up

Posted by Hayes Davenport on Nov 16, 2010 106938 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F11%2F16%2Ftuesday-notebook-jermaines-second-opinion-wiz-banged-up%2FTuesday+Notebook%3A+Jermaine%27s+Second+Opinion%2C+Wiz+Banged+Up2010-11-16+20%3A03%3A13Hayes+Davenporthttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D10693

Third consecutive day off. Brutal. Let’s ride it out together with a look at yesterday’s news.

• Gary Washburn reported in the Globe’s Celtics Blog that Jermaine O’Neal is consulting a New York specialist about his balky knees.

O’Neal’s agent, Bob Myers, said the next step will be at least an evaluation from noted orthopaedic surgeon Dr. David Altchek, the team physician of the New York Mets and medical consultant for the NBA. Images of O’Neal’s knee will be sent to Altchek and the center could also visit the doctor in New York.

You may recognize Dr. Altchek from every injury news article ever. “Noted orthop(a)edic surgeon Dr. David Altchek” is one of the two horsemen of injury apocalypse, along with “Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham.” In the past year or so, Altchek:

-repaired Al Jefferson’s torn ACL

-performed Twins closer Joe Nathan’s Tommy John surgery

-did all 14 of Andrew Bynum’s complete knee replacements

-recommended that T-Mac get microfracture surgery

-did Purdue forward Robbie Hummel’s torn ACL…today.

And so on. You wouldn’t be crazy to suspect that Jermaine might need surgery here as Dr. Altchek schemes to fill his Olympic diving regulation money pool with still more doubloons. But don’t fret, guys. Jermaine’s agent is here to help you put aside your childish worries.

When asked if the injury is serious, Myers said, “Not at this point. Nobody is using that term.”

Well, color me sold. Can barely remember what I was worried about in the first place. Let’s proceed.

You’ve seen this play out before, of course. This Jermaine thing is yet another example of the C’s institutionalized caginess when it comes to injuries. Here’s a fun excerpt from a February 2009 ESPN.com article:

Celtics president Danny Ainge said Garnett will be out 2-3 weeks with the injury. “Rest and ice for KG,” Ainge told the Globe.

Somehow, some way, that prescription was not effective. KG would play 67 minutes the rest of the year, and his recovery was shrouded in mystery the entire time. As a fan, I’d prefer the team follow the Trailblazers model of fearlessly dumping injury news into the media as soon as it happens, rather than the Clippers model of distributing blatant misinformation in order to sell tickets. But I understand that there’s probably some strategic element to how the C’s handle their injury business, so I’m probably out of my depth here.

• In related news: there’s nothing we pig-dog Americans love more than bitching and moaning about our lives even when our lives are indisputably wonderful. For example, this site exists. I hesitate to link you to it, but it contains an important message.

That message is this: as we complain about a few weeks off for our backup center, let’s keep tucked in the back of our minds that the 2-6 Washington Wizards are potentially out their star point guard, their mini-star power forward, and their backup power forward for tomorrow night’s game against the C’s, the second night of a back-to-back for them.

From Michael Lee, the Washington Post’s Wizards Insider:

The Wizards will not have rookie John Wall or reserve Yi Jianlian for tonight’s game against the Toronto Raptors. Coach Flip Saunders said at the morning shootaround that Wall was out with a sprained left foot, which has him moving around on crutches.

Surprisingly no mention of Andray Blatche, even though he said this two posts earlier in the Insider blog:

“I went and got an MRI, and it’s a little scruff behind the bone, nothing too major….I’m just going to take it a day at time and see how I feel tomorrow. If I feel better tomorrow and the swelling is down, I’m going to play. If not, it’s going to be a chance for the rookies to step up.”

So that’s Wall on crutches, Yi with a hyperextended right knee, and Blatche with a scruffish ruffish bone, all sustained in the same game against the Bulls last week. Competitive advantage be danged, I really hope Wall’s good to go tomorrow.