With Stephen Curry out of the lineup on Monday night, the Golden State Warriors still vanquished the Houston Rockets in Game 2 of their first round series. The outcome was never really in doubt.
So everything’s okay, right? Curry’s resting and making sure that his ankle is 100 percent, and the Warriors are rolling along. That’s how the team should be handling things right now. It’s smooth sailing as the reigning MVP recovers and enjoys himself on the sideline.
“We know that he had surgery on that ankle four years ago. He’s got a lot of basketball ahead of him. There are plenty of cases in the past where people played through stuff, and it didn’t turn out so well. Grant Hill being the one that always jumps out at me. Whether that is the same type of thing as this, I don’t really know. I do know is that we have to look after his health because the competitor that he is, he’s going to want to play.”
Oh. Comparing Curry to Grant Hill, even in passing? That’s probably not good. It’s the kind of language that can incite mass fear in the Bay Area, to be sure. But it’s probably no big deal — just an off-the-cuff comment from Kerr. No worries, right? After all, the Warriors are being cautious with Curry, and they’ll keep him out until he’s healthy.
Sure. Probably. But Kerr continued:
When asked specifically if it’s a foot or an ankle, Kerr said, “I don’t know. Honestly. It’s both. I mean, I’m not sure I know the difference. It’s the back of his foot, it’s the ankle, it’s something down there.”
THIS IS FINE. THIS IS FINE. Curry had an MRI, and things are fine. Right?.
The best player in the NBA is being compared to one of the biggest cautionary tales in NBA injury history? This is fine!
His coach doesn’t know exactly what the nature of his injury is? No worries, nope nope nope.
In all likelihood, of course, this is just the Warriors keeping things close to the vest. For one thing, the Warriors don’t give away information. They’re not going to reveal more than they absolutely must.
Moreover, saying Curry is suffering from an ankle injury is practically a forbidden statement in Golden State. With his injury history, Kerr and the team would rather call Curry’s ailment a “leg-type status limitation” than actually label it an ankle problem — even if the ankle is the issue.
We don’t know how badly injured Curry is at this point, though, and it sounds like the Warriors might not, either. That’s the truly terrifying thing for anyone who’s a fan of the game. And it’s where the Hill comparison might be apt as evidence of what not to do.
You know Hill, of course. He was a phenom at Duke University and seemed as if he could live up to his label as “The Next Michael Jordan,” before injuries derailed a superstar-level career. In 2000, he broke his ankle in the playoffs against the Miami Heat. But the problems started before that, as he told FOX Sports in 2011:
“I don’t think anybody really knows I started to have ankle problems at the end of the 1999-2000 season, probably mid-March,” Hill said. “I was still able to go out and play. I still played well, but I was getting a lot of treatment. It was certainly bothering me. As we got closer to the end of the season, my ankle was really getting worse. I was missing practice. To the point where we had a nationally televised game against Philadelphia and I just pulled myself. My ankle was just killing me. We get back, we get an MRI. They say it’s a bone bruise.”
Hill rested the final three games of the regular season and returned to the lineup for the Miami playoff series.
“It’s still bothering me,” Hill said. “I pull myself in the third quarter. They put me on some heavy medication and we had a long break between Game 1 and Game 2. While I was on this medication I felt great. Obviously it was masking the pain. Went out and played in Game 2 and I felt a pop in the second quarter, continued on in the third quarter and couldn’t go on. When we got back, we found out it was broken.”
The NBA has come a long way since Hill’s days, particularly in how teams handle injuries. We trust the Warriors to do the very best by Curry and keep him safe. But it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult to keep a competitor like Curry off the floor if he feels healthy enough to play. And that gray area between mentality and physical ability is where injuries happen.
But it’s fine. Steph’s going to be okay, and the Warriors will keep rolling, and the playoffs will continue to be amazing.