Should we blame our medical staff for Shaq's injury?

[Chris]

I dont really think you can ever blame any medical staff for any injury unless it is something involving rushing a player back from rehab, even then its hard to blame a medical staff.

Is it fair to say that some staffs are better than others?  For instance, Phoenix is lauded for its training staff, who have generally kept their older players injury free.  Is that coincidence, or is there something to it?

I haven't been particularly enamored with the Celtics training staff over the past several years (dating back to when they insisted that Big Al was healed, despite him having bone chips, and to when they kept bringing Wally back too soon, only to have him inevitably get re-injured).  Maybe I'm being too hard on them, and should recognize that injuries are inevitable.  However, it seems like our guys struggle with re-injury more than other teams, and I wonder if there's anything to that (or, again, if it's coincidence and/or observation bias.)

Yeah, while I think it is a very dangerous thing to question training staffs and injuries in general, since we never have all of the facts, and every case is different...I still have my concerns with the C's training staff.

Part of it might be the way Doc portrays things though.  My biggest problem is when we hear from Doc that the trainer did not want the guy to play, but the player was able to talk his way into the game.  I think there is a good chance it is being overdramatized a bit by Doc (he was a heck of a play by play guy for a reason), but I still don't like that.  It is the trainers job to determine if a player is both fit to play, and whether playing could make them more likely to reinjure themselves.  So, I think it is incredibly important that they are a bit firmer with their decisions, and don't allow themselves to be talked out of them.  

Again, this is probably just a perception thing, because these guys are obviously very good at what they do.  But the way they are portrayed, it does at least elicit some concerns.

[housecall]

Coming back playing at game speed was probably the reason for Shaq's injury not the medical staff.
25yr.old Darelle Revis pulled a hamstring coming back after a long layoff in the NFL last season in a game aganist the Pats.Coming back trying to play at the same pace of their teams has more to do with them risking injury than age.

[Chris]

Coming back playing at game speed was probably the reason for Shaq's injury not the medical staff.
25yr.old Darelle Revis pulled a hamstring coming back after a long layoff in the NFL last season in a game aganist the Pats.Coming back trying to play at the same pace of their teams has more to do with them risking injury than age.

While I agree with this.  I think it is the training staff's responsibility to know that given Shaq's age and the nature of this injury, it was a big risk to rush him back right into game action without building up to it more gradually to build up more strength.  At least that is my impression of what happened.

[greenpride32]

Players play hurt; that's become acceptable when athletes have multi-million dollar contracts to either help their team win or sell tickets and merchandise.  I'll use Delonte West as an example.  He will not be 100% until next sesaon at the earliest.  But he's still being ask to play which puts him more at risk to injury than if he were given time off to fully heal.

Can't blame the medical staff because I'm sure they weren't saying these guys are 100% when they gave the go head; it's a lower threshold than that. 

Injuries happen; sometimes they're due to chronic physical conditions or sometimes they are just freak accidents.  Should we start blaming the POR mediacal staff for Roy and Orden or HOU for Yao? 

[zerophase]

I dont really think you can ever blame any medical staff for any injury unless it is something involving rushing a player back from rehab, even then its hard to blame a medical staff.

Is it fair to say that some staffs are better than others?  For instance, Phoenix is lauded for its training staff, who have generally kept their older players injury free.  Is that coincidence, or is there something to it?

I haven't been particularly enamored with the Celtics training staff over the past several years (dating back to when they insisted that Big Al was healed, despite him having bone chips, and to when they kept bringing Wally back too soon, only to have him inevitably get re-injured).  Maybe I'm being too hard on them, and should recognize that injuries are inevitable.  However, it seems like our guys struggle with re-injury more than other teams, and I wonder if there's anything to that (or, again, if it's coincidence and/or observation bias.)

It seems that every year our team has more injuries than any other. At some point you have to say it's not just luck it's the actual skill of our medical staff. I made the point on a previous thread that Phoenix's great team of doctors were able to revive Shaq and give him a renaissance year, and Nash and Grant Hill have remained incredibly healthy for their age. I think this has to do more than with just sunshine since if it were the case you could argue sunshine for almost any southern or western team.

I remember a story about how Detroit's medical staff mandated everyone on the team wear mid cut shoes because they had too many ankle injuries. Afterward, ankle turns no longer were a issue for the team. I don't see why we can't do the same. It's simple things like that.

I've gone through multiple injuries as an athlete and I have to say there are definite contrasts to quality of medical facilities. I don't think anyone can argue about that. I really think Danny should consider improving ours.