Preview: Kings at Jazz, Game 6
by Ziller on Nov 7, 2009 12:00 PM PST
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Grant Napear Named Kings Medical Advisor
by Ziller on Nov 7, 2009 8:39 AM PST
in News
65 comments
SACRAMENTO -- Kings television play-by-play announcer and award-winning* radio host Grant Napear will add medical advice duties starting immediately, Kings president Geoff Petrie announced** Saturday.
After showing an impressive ability to diagnose injuries without any formal medical experience and without actually looking at potential injuries in any detail, Napear suggested to Kings management he may be able to determine whether players under contract should play or sit in future games.
"(For years) players have sat when they could've played. That bothers me," Napear told Sacramento Bee reporter Sam Amick.
Napear feels so bothered by the prospect that highly-paid professional athletes could actually be weak Nancy boys he publicly advised this week that Kings guard Kevin Martin might be soft. According to Amick, Napear took to the airwaves before Wednesday's game against the Hawks to state that if Martin, who at the time was considered questionable with an injured left wrist, did not play against Atlanta, it would be fair to call him soft and to question his toughness.
Martin played in the game, totaling 29 points and 11 rebounds. On Thursday, an MRI revealed a fractured navicular bone in Martin's wrist. He will undergo surgery to repair the fracture on Monday, and is expected to miss eight weeks.
In his role as medical advisor, Napear will be asked to make snap judgments without the benefit of medical examination, as he did Wednesday by accusing Martin of a lack of toughness and advising the guard to play without having any clue as to the severity of the injury. Napear also filled this role in an unofficial sense late last season, when on the radio he ripped Martin for failing to play in meaningless games for the worst team in the league due to a serious bone bruise in his ankle. Napear, without any medical background whatsoever and with no suggested inside information as to the nature of Martin's ankle injury, said repeatedly that Martin was weak for failing to play out the season.
In his interview with Amick, Napear continued to press this point.
"I don't change my stance on (his view of Martin's ankle injury) at all. If a player can play, I think they should play," Napear said.
Napear said Martin's current injury is different, that while Martin could theoretically play with the injury -- as he did Wednesday -- a broken bone is a "real" injury, as opposed to a deep bone bruise in the ankle, which is something you just "have to rub some dirt on and tough it out." As a part of his official duties with the team, Napear will be compiling a list of maladies which are eligible for treatment and which must be played through by Kings players. In a preliminary list, Napear lists "breaking your face" and "breaking your leg" as injuries eligible for rehab. Muscle strains and sprains, flu-like symptoms, bone bruises and in some cases death are not eligible for time off, because "someone without medical experience or an X-ray machine cannot necessarily see those injuries with his own eyes, so they might be faked," Napear said.
As per team policy, the details of Napear's contract were not released.
65 comments | 9 recs |
Amick rips Peaches
Sam Amick, Kevin Martin, and even Bobby Jackson say what they think. Great, great article.
Sacramento Kings guard Kevin Martin discusses his decision to have surgery on his left wrist, which will keep him out a minimum of eight weeks.
Amick: Kevin Martin Forced Out of Action
by Ziller on Nov 6, 2009 1:11 PM PST
in News
40 comments
The Bee's Sam Amick has the scoop:
It remains unclear whether he will have surgery or simply put the wrist in the cast, but Martin won't be returning to the floor anytime soon. He met with a local hand specialist this morning and had the MRIs examined and all involved said he had to allow the hand to heal.
It looks like the option of playing with a fractured wrist should never have been on the table. Martin still must decide whether to cast it for several weeks, or to undergo surgery.
UPDATE: It's surgery. Monday.
40 comments | 0 recs |
[Bobby] Jackson ... was the warrior of a sixth man who somehow found himself being dubbed soft when his abdominal strain kept him out of the 2004 playoffs. Some of those same uneducated voices are the ones questioning Martin's heart now, just as they did last season when his left ankle bone bruise kept him out of 31 games. Equally unjust.
There are credibility issues all over this thing, but the fact of the matter is that much of the skepticism sprouts from in-house and spills over into the mouthpieces who set the tone with the fans. It's a big problem that could have big consequences.
1 day ago
Ziller
42 comments
1 recs
Quick Math on the Kevin Martin Injury
by Ziller on Nov 6, 2009 9:06 AM PST
in Commentary
117 comments
Games Kevin Martin would miss if he had his fractured wrist surgically repaired or allowed it to heal, assuming the longest stated schedule for recovery: 29.
Games Kevin Martin is under contract for with the Kings: 323.
***
Would you rather have Martin miss 29 while letting a fracture heal, or would you rather he play injured for eight weeks, then spending the rest of his lucrative contract hobbled by arthritis? Are the next 29 games more important than the subsequent 294?
117 comments | 1 recs |
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