Basketball Free For All

Quick question – when you think of Tracy McGrady what comes to mind?  A supremely talented basketball player?  An All-Star destined to never meet lofty expectations?  Or perhaps the posterchild for the most injury prone active athlete?

Well Tim Grover of Attack Athletics (the guy who fixed Dwyane Wade and is trying to do the same for a number of other players this year) undertook the difficult task of changing that perception almost three months ago and by all accounts, Tracy’s rehab was going well.  So well in fact that T-Mac was suddenly on pace to be ready for the start of this upcoming season.   Then, less than one week ago, the talk hope of possibly being ready to go for the start of training camp soured.

Rockets guard Tracy McGrady will not be cleared to practice with the team Tuesday when training camp begins, officials said Monday. McGrady will continue his rehabilitation from microfracture surgery on his knee through Nov. 23 when he will undergo an additional MRI examination to determine whether he can begin practicing.

Source:  The Houston Chronicle

Even though Tracy stated to Sports Illustrated, “Confidence-wise, running, cutting, jumping — I have that right now,” he claims there is no reason to rush things.  Wait, on the one hand, you’re telling us you have all the abilities you need on the court, but you’re not ready?  Excuse me, but that doesn’t make sense.

So what happened?  Did Grover *dare I say* fail T-Mac?

I don’t think so.

The problem unfortunately appears to be the effects of the microfracture surgery.  While it isn’t a very invasive surgery, recovery times vary greatly.  Usually, for a return to sports, the window is 6-to-9 months.  According to the aforementioned SI article, Tracy stated he was only 7 months removed from surgery.  He also stated that he’s still technically ahead of schedule but that his doctors said it could take a year.  Consequently, Knee-Mac never set a true return date.

Rather, it seems like the whole world latched onto the optimism of physical therapist David Reavy.  Tracy’s recovery was going so well that Reavy was buzzing with a little too much optimism in making such a bold statement.  Unfortunately, many of us (whether its the fantasy basketball crowd or the Rockets faithful) latch onto stuff like this like a moth to a flame.

So really there was no actual setback.  Just a few too many jumping the gun.

In reality, there should still be plenty of hope that Tracy’s return will be successful at some point this season.  First, there is no denying McGrady has made faster than anticpated progress thus far during rehab.

“[Tracy] took a hard fall seven years ago in 2002 and he said he was never able to dunk off his left leg [since]. We got him dunking off his left leg four and a half months post micro-fracture, which is basically unheard of,” Reavy says. “The results that we get here are basically unprecedented because we take the force off the injured area, we make the body absorb the force equally, so that it can heal properly and faster without the loading that it’s constantly getting before.

Source:  ESPN Chicago

Second, TMAC’s actual surgery revealed it was not nearly as risky as others.  Dr. Tom Clanton, Houston’s team doctor, stated: “the joint damage is in a “favorable location,” not near a weight-bearing area, and that McGrady’s knee is otherwise healthy.”

Third, Tracy and the doctors are being much more careful to avoid a relapse like last year.  Tracy has spent almost the entire post-surgery time (not just the few months with Grover) in Chicago doing all the right things.  Namely resting then rehabbing under close supervision.  Consequently, it appears Tim Grover is off the hook — at least temporarily.

On the other hand, the two players we all need to be watching in initially judging Grover’s effectiveness should be either Gilbert Arenas or Jermaine O’Neal.  Both of them are more than a year removed from surgery and both tried to rehab/comeback under different guidance.  Much to his dismay (as we all heard by now), Gilbert followed the direction of the Wizards’ team doctors.  Meanwhile, Jermaine rehabbed with a different trainer, Joe Abunassar, a summer ago.

It will be interesting to watch how well Grover’s clients perform. Currently, he’s on a pedestal thanks to the phenomenal season Wade turned in last year.  If most of his guys make it through this year, either healthy for the most part or exhibit explosiveness only seen prior to injury, we might have to put that pedestal atop Mount Everest.