hardwood houdini and jeff clark-the big lie

[rollie mass]

it takes time to recover from serious sprains sitting out 17 games alone is enough-it takes time-marcus has had a series of violent injuries almost freakish-did you play ball ,ever been on crutches for 8 weeks and be told you would have been better off breaking your ankle,-marcus himself is not injury prone but his play on defence is
 a tape job is what clark called his dislocation of two fingers thats not a little wrist sprain,last years high ankle sprain limited marcus's exposiveness and first step-a rookie playing injured took him all season and into summer for pain to go away-

[kozlodoev]

it takes time to recover from serious sprains sitting out 17 games alone is enough-it takes time-marcus has had a series of violent injuries almost freakish-did you play ball ,ever been on crutches for 8 weeks and be told you would have been better off breaking your ankle,-marcus himself is not injury prone but his play on defence is
 a tape job is what clark called his dislacation of two fingers thats not a little wrist sprain

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. It also doesn't answer my question. The bottom line is, he either has to (1) stay healthy, or (2) figure out how to play banged up. If he can't play, I really don't care whether it's because he failed (1) or (2).

[Celtics18]

Based on my forensic investigation, I have come to the conclusion that LarBrd33 wrote the Hardwood Houdini article under the pseudonym, Jeff Clark.

[rollie mass]

have you ever played basketball-i shouldn't even have to answer your loaded question-injuries happen some serious some tape jobs-by the nature of being  a rookie there will be mistakes of mind over body -jabari parker aaron gordon,julius randle rjh,marcus smart, exum all these rookies had serious injuries some out for the season- this is a 21 year old, some say they have never seen a rookie on d as good as marcus

[Rondo2287]

Serious neck injury?  Nahhh

Possibly concussion? Nahh

Sprained ankle leaving on a stretcher?  yup!

[PhoSita]

Based on my forensic investigation, I have come to the conclusion that LarBrd33 wrote the Hardwood Houdini article under the pseudonym, Jeff Clark.

Let's give both LarBrd33 and our Jeff Clark some credit ... I've seen significantly better writing, on a regular basis, out of both of them, than that Hardwood Houdini article.

[KeepRondo]

Serious neck injury?  Nahhh

Possibly concussion? Nahh

Sprained ankle leaving on a stretcher?  yup!

People keep wanting to blame the injuries but Smart never had much lift, before the injuries, when going to the rim. He also is starting to seem boneheaded with drive after drive ending the same way. He needs to mix up his game and stop trying to force it at the rim.

[jpotter33]

I am still looking for someone to articulate why the fact that someone can't stay healthy is a mitigating circumstance for poor performance.

The term injury-prone has always been so abstract that I didn't think it held any merit. For example, everyone called Love injury-prone for a long time. I never really understood it, because sometimes stuff just happens, e.g. Olynyk grabbing his arm. However, if anyone is injury-prone, it's probably Smart due to his style. I mean, the very thing that you love about him (his hustle, determination, and physical nature) also has its risks.

To be fair, though, I think both his sprain last year and his knee issue this year were due to stepping on an opponent's foot, which is something that just happens in basketball that you can't really control.

[PhoSita]

However, if anyone is injury-prone, it's probably Smart due to his style. I mean, the very thing that you love about him (his hustle, determination, and physical nature) also has its risks.

I think this is an important point. 

Obviously we all love to see Celtics players giving full energy and effort out there.  It's great to see that Smart is willing to sacrifice himself to make plays that help the team win.

At the same time, the NBA season is long.  Winning a title requires winning 4 straight playoff series.  That means contributing in a big way, on a night-in, night-out basis -- which is what you want from a star player, i.e. what we have all hoped Smart can be -- has to occur over the long haul, every season. 

It's really hard to do that and stay healthy if your primary way of contributing is by throwing yourself around the court and sacrificing your body to make players.  In other words, being a star means you have to know how to produce without going balls to the wall all the time.  That is, unless you're a freak of nature like Russell Westbrook.

This is part of why Manu Ginobili has always been best coming off the bench, by the way.  His thing has always been premised on going all-out, never holding back.  The Spurs knew from early on that he couldn't do that 30+ minutes a night and avoid major injury.

[LarBrd33]

Based on my forensic investigation, I have come to the conclusion that LarBrd33 wrote the Hardwood Houdini article under the pseudonym, Jeff Clark.

That was actually my first thought when I read it.

I've been putting off this project for years. I want to digitize some old 1980s camcorder footage. It requires the old cassette, a VCR, the special VHS to house the small cassette, and my old Minidv camcorder to act as a pass-thru as I transfer the footage to my old Macbook that happens to have firewire. The only thing I was missing was the [dang] RCA/AV cable to connect my camcorder to the VCR. Looked all over the condo for that [dang] cable trying to find it. No dice. Frustrated, I went on Amazon and ordered a new one... I figured I'd have to deal with the project next week. As I went to pack all the stuff back up I noticed an unopened envelope addressed to my old address just sitting in the middle of the floor next to the VCR... Opened it up... It's the [dang] cable I ordered off Amazon four years ago the last time I couldn't find it.



There's a real possibility I'm becoming the guy from Memento.  Maybe I wrote the article.  Who knows.  I use way more ellipses than Darkest Timeline Jeff Clark, though... 

[Celtics18]

Good luck with the camcorder project.

[alldaboston]

I'd like to think I'm not crazy, but this is really weird. When I read the article the first time a few nights ago or whenever we had a thread about it here, I scrolled to the comments to see if anyone else has voiced their opinion about that article. Sure enough there was a comment from this one guy who kindly disagreed with that Jeff Clark. The author ("Jeff Clark"), responded to the comment with a "hey, thanks for reading. I think... Blah blah blah". But his username, when he responded, was Jeffrey Clark. Now, however, all those comments are gone...

[TheSundanceKid]

The guy replies in the comments saying he's not the Jeff Clark from CelticsBlog, phew!