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Thanks for the translation. I'm most surprised about his comments about this being his goodbye to the national team, I expected him to play one extra year and retire after the Olympics in Rio
A few months ago, after winning the NBA championship with the Spurs, I tweeted "I'm in", in reference to the upcoming World Cup in Spain. The truth is I had finished the compe ion in good shape, I was euphoric and I wanted to be with the guys one more time. I never imagined what was going to happen next. After that announcement, on a routine exit physical an MRI caused doctors to suspect I had a stress fracture on my fibula. A few days later, after I returned from vacation, a CAT scan confirmed the initial prognosis.
That's when things became complicated.
The Spurs automatically asked me to sit out the tournament, but I didn't make much of it at the time. I understood the logic behind their concerns but disagreed about the time line for recovery the franchise's doctors advised for in their report. I looked for second opinions from specialist in the area who told me the fracture was very small and the 40 days between the last game against the Heat and the first day of the national team's training camp were more than enough for it to heal completely.
As it's well known, I had agreed with the Spurs to do a new MRI and CAT scan on the 25th, to see how the injury was progressing. The local doctors were optimistic and shared their good news with me. It was looking good at that time, but we still needed to see what the franchise had to say about these new results.
There's a clause on the FIBA/NBA agreement about the participation of NBA players in international compe ion that reads: "Players are not authorized to play or train with a national team when there are reasonable medical concerns about that participation putting the player in substantial risk of injury, disease or other damages."
That clause complicated things for me because it gave them legal power to forbid me to play the World Cup.
The answer wasn't what I was expecting. They said that given the images they had received, they couldn't conclude that the injury was cured completely and therefore there were still "reasonable concerns." So they were still forbidding me to play.
So far, that's a chronological account of what happened.
I thought I had only one card left to play, which was to ignore the Spurs' request and look for FIBA to sort of mediate, to determine if the concern was "reasonable" or not, which is a pretty subjective matter.
It was the logical next step. Even if it would cause some problems between the franchise and I down the line, it was the last resort. But here's when a more delicate situation, and definitely more important for me, came into play. To make sure the bone was healed, I had spent 42 days without training like I usually do, without running or jumping, so as to not put any stress on the fibula. And that caused me to go into training camp in pitiful shape. When you are 37 years old, it's not easy to start from scratch and catch up, so we started to ramp up the preparation once the test results were in.
I started physical therapy in the pool acceptably well but when I moved to the treadmill, that's when pain started to crop up, especially in my right ankle and left foot. I did a lot of physical therapy and stretching and it seemed like the pain was slowly subsiding. But when I started to push my body harder this Wednesday, running and shooting, at the end of the training session the pain in the area of the stress fracture in the fibula re-appeared. That basically crushed any expectation I had to come up with some sort of plan to play in Spain, since asking FIBA to mediate was pointless considering the original injury clearly wasn't fully healed.
I'm very sorry for the bad news. I'm sad and disappointed. I wanted to say goodbye to the national team on the court, with my friends but it's not to be. I'll be with the team for as long as I can, trying to contribute from the outside, supporting them through everything, like I'm sure you will both in the friendlies in Tecnópolis and Bahia Blanca and through the TV during the tournament.
http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...f-manus-column
Thanks for the translation. I'm most surprised about his comments about this being his goodbye to the national team, I expected him to play one extra year and retire after the Olympics in Rio
I did not do the translation.
All credit and source go to http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...f-manus-column
So basically Spurs doctors were right and his second and third opinion doctors in Argentina were wrong
I sure hope this doesn't mean anything serious.
Exactly. The ones he accused of unethical behavior in the media were right, and all of his sycophant Argentinian ones and the one he shopped for and found in Chicago were wrong. Imagine that. The ones that you wanted to give you a favorable opinion were all wrong. Shocking. And still using the "diagnosing isn't an exact science" as defense of poor behavior. He should have remembered that more clearly when making comments about the Spurs' doctors, instead of implying that they were intentionally lengthening recovery time to benefit their client.
Sucks for Manu, this situation. At least he is honest with what transpired (of course), so bottom line is it still hurts, it's not healed, he's not in playing shape right now. Kind of sucky that he felt that FIBA mediating on his behalf and ignoring the Spurs doctors was a 'card left to play.'
Sucks for Manu, but he needs to remember that there's only one en y in all this that cares about him, and it's about a lot more than money. There aren't many pro sports franchises that you can say have the player's best interests in mind. This one does.
Thanks for posting
im quite puzzled by the lack of informal communication between Manu and FO. I can't imagine a situation where a problem could occur between Manu and Spurs because of this participation. This interview sounds like a way out for Manu in front of Argentinean national media. That's weird.
It probably sounds that way because it is. Manu can blame the Spurs, who are happy to take the heat from fans for him, and he doesn't have to participate in a meaningless exhibition that his team has no chance of doing well in.
If this is the case Manu could have said after a long season I just need to rest, I think Argentinean media would have understood. Parker is not playing this summer and he is much younger and nobody in France is questioning his patriotism.
Fair point. Maybe they would have understood. But I don't think they would, and if I were the team I'd volunteer to take the hit for Manu just so we wouldn't have to find out.
The United States has the best medical care in the wold and its not even close. My brother-in-law suffered a punctured lung while on vacation in Venice, Italy and his treatment was downright nightmarish and medieval.
Last edited by tmtcsc; 08-04-2014 at 07:39 AM.
This is the only part that concerns me.
Yep. That is pretty much the main thing that I am interested in. Is he going to be OK and is it going to heal properly by itself with more time off?
How many injuries does he have? He mentions pain in both his right ankle and left foot!
Which side in the stress fracture on?
he was not to do anything for 2 months
it was suppose to heal for 2 months he started at day 42 not 60
now there is a setback but he should be ok
sounds like he's far from being ready for training camp
him missing first month is nothing if need be to get into shape
He should of gotten some of that Ibaka juice. Dude is old and will never be on the early side of recovery times. This makes me think we will see little of healthy manu this season.
The Spurs, Manu and the NT should come to an agreement where Manu can be dressed and on the team and be sort of a player/coach without necessarily playing. As long as we can trust hyper compe ive Manu not to do anything crazy.
Luckily the Spurs are smarter than you because if Manu is suited, then he IS going to play.
Now I am a bit surprised that Manu doesn't offer to be a coach/mentor and cheer his team on from the sidelines.
Was posted a day ago:
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...=1#post7538204
Obviously the team doctors were right, I don't know why Manu likes to doubt them. Even the Argentinian doctor couldn't definitively clear Manu to play.
The problem now is that Manu is still suffering pain. Hopefully his injury will not require surgery. There were a couple NBA players that sat out for a month or two after a stress fracture only to discover later that they needed season ending surgeries.
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