"I want to play," Roy said. "It's the playoffs. You play 82 games and take a beating just to get to this point."

Sounds like he's making it his call.

With a healthy Roy, I think the Blazers have as good a chance as anyone in that Western Conference. The Lakers have been on everyone's short list to make the finals, but they're recently proving that they're certainly not invincible.

Without Roy, it'll be tough sledding for Portland. He is unquestionably the soul of the team. If he's in street clothes, they roll over. If he's in uniform, even playing limited minutes, the team will play much harder.

I would say no too because the Blazers need to protect their young investment.

Wouldn't it be a shame if they allowed Roy to play hurt and the rest of his career he won't be the same while Greg Oden (knock on wood) becomes the healthy one?

The Blazers need to do their best to have all their guys healthy for the rest of their young careers.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/roy-may-play-despite-torn-meniscus

He will require surgery and will be out from four to six weeks. But he said he may try to play with the injury in the playoffs because doctors told him it cannot get worse.

Not really sure how an injury like this "cannot get worse," but that's from what i read on msn this morning.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/roy-may-play-despite-torn-meniscus

Quote

He will require surgery and will be out from four to six weeks. But he said he may try to play with the injury in the playoffs because doctors told him it cannot get worse.

Not really sure how an injury like this "cannot get worse," but that's from what i read on msn this morning.

Call me crazy but that's the thing that drew me in to.  If doctors are saying that he can't possibly get any worse before surgery, then maybe he can try and gut it out.  I have no idea how effective he'd be, though.  He's clearly going to have limited mobility too.

I wouldn't be surprised if the organization seriously frowned upon this attempt to play but I am curious about his ability to play through it if the doctors are saying that nothing is going to really change between now and surgery.  

I'm not a doctor but wouldn't a torn meniscus lead to added compensation on other joints in the knee?  So wouldn't the possibility exist that this added stress elsewhere could lead to another injury non-meniscus related?

20 years ago, when the alternative was open knee surgery - often worse than the injury itself - plenty of NBA players would play on mild meniscus tears, in many cases for years till the end of their careers. They'd have diminished range in some games, they had to ice their knees a lot, have them drained and take pain pills. It still happens.

No significant risk of overcompensating, as long as the pain is tolerable and he's moving decently. It's like playing with arthritis: if all the players suffering from it decided to sit down, teams would need 30 players rosters because at least 20 of them would always be injured. Pro athletes aren't supposed to be healthy, the human body wasn't designed to endure the level of physical effort they go through. If Roy can deal with the pain and the inflammations are under control he should play.

20 years ago, when the alternative was open knee surgery - often worse than the injury itself - plenty of NBA players would play on mild meniscus tears, in many cases for years till the end of their careers. They'd have diminished range in some games, they had to ice their knees a lot, have them drained and take pain pills. It still happens.

No significant risk of overcompensating, as long as the pain is tolerable and he's moving decently. It's like playing with arthritis: if all the players suffering from it decided to sit down, teams would need 30 players rosters because at least 20 of them would always be injured. Pro athletes aren't supposed to be healthy, the human body wasn't designed to endure the level of physical effort they go through. If Roy can deal with the pain and the inflammations are under control he should play.

Good stuff. I agree. I actually have a meniscus tear in my knee right now. I happen to live in Portland as well and my doc (one of the best in town, but probably not B-Roy's doc) told me pretty much the same thing - that there's really no risk of further damage. I told him I wanted to finish out the rest of my rec league basketball season and he said that would be totally fine as long as I can handle any discomfort. He also said that lots of people go for years and years without even knowing that they have a meniscus tear - then one day, their knee starts hurting and they end up getting an MRI that shows the tear.

I'm like a lot of people that look at knee injuries as being really scary for athletes. But I've become convinced that a meniscus tear is easily the most minor of all knee injuries and perhaps less of a big deal than a bad ankle sprain. Long term, it shouldn't be a problem (unless the tear is so bad that he's left with no meniscus). In the short term, it's just a matter of getting any swelling down and then managing pain and mobility. I think he'll gut it out.