Posted by GKFv2:

Always have to rely on isles to bring the negativity. When are you gonna change dude? I guarantee if there was a "Gallinari pain, injury-free" headline you wouldn't even care to post it and only comment in the topic with some sarcastic reply. Whatever man. It gets told after a while.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by sebstar:

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by sebstar:

when I said "you" I was talking about Walsh.

And what is your line of reasoning as to why we drafted a guy with the number 6 pick with a bad back, when there was a wealth of talent immediately before, and certainly after our selection.

My guess is they thought he was the best player on the board. Why did Dumars draft Darko over Melo, Wade, Bosh? Why did the Wizards draft Kwame Brown over Tyson Chandler, Joe Johnson and Pau Gasol? This **** happens dude.

Dumars was hoodwinked by the Euro craze earlier in the decade. Same deal, almost. His pick was definitely more sociological and psychological than basketball minded. His mistake cost them championships.

Yeah, every GM makes mistakes. Drafting is not an exact science, for sure. But once it was discovered that Gallo had back issues at 19 years of age, he should have been taken off the board considering the talent that was behind him. Point blank. Why wasnt he?

I have no idea. I seriously and I say SERIOUSLY doubt that Donnie Walsh would come here and let his first draft selection be an injury-riddled international player with a known back-issue that was this bad. My guess is that he got some bad information from some doctors.

All I'm saying is I doubt he thought the back issue was that bad, because if he did I doubt he would still draft him. What is the benefit of drafting him knowing he's hurt? Ok, maybe you get a bit more of a season tickets boom for the upcoming year, BUT if his back injury was known to be as bad it is, then theres a real chance he may never play in the league and how does that help your franchise sell tickets to these Euros? It doesn't, so selecting him makes no sense.

Dr. Edward Benzel, chairman of the Neurological Surgery and Spine at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, told The Post yesterday he would recommend surgery only in the most severe cases of leg pain, especially for a 20-year-old. Dr. Benzel has not seen Gallinari's X-rays and was speaking generally.

"You sure don't want to operate on young people, and he's barely out of his teenage years," Dr. Benzel said. "Kids that age are notorious to have recurring problems when they have surgery that young, more likely he'll have grief down the road with chronic problems."

According to Dr. Benzel, a bulging disk causes leg pain because a disk or its fluid presses on a nerve. A popular procedure is called a diskectomy that removes part of the disk.

Gallinari, after shutting it down in November, visited three back specialists who recommended rest and core back exercises over surgery. He returned in January but not without still pain radiating down his leg. After a horrible, four-game road trip concluded last weekend, Gallinari visited another back surgeon Monday. He is expected back from Italy Monday.

Dr. Benzel warns not to rush into anything invasive.

"I'm a conversative surgeon," he said. "In surgery, you can walk down a pathway and never return. The reason for that is due to scar tissue, a nerve could get irritated or stretched during surgery. Twenty percent will return to the operating room and have recurring problems and wonder why they did it."

Dr. Benzel would only recommend surgery if very severe leg pain travels all the way to the toe. That Gallinari was playing with the pain means it may not be that severe, said Dr. Benzel, who noted that resting him till mid-summer may be the wiser course.

If pain still exists in mid-summer, then surgery would be a stronger consideration, he said.

Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by Andrew:

Did anyone else listen to the audio and hear Kiki say they knew he had a bad back? I didn't hear him say that.

wfan: so how would you classify gallinari's back problem?

kiki: that sh t be broke.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 03-19-2009 4:04 PM]

Posted by martin:

Someone should have asked Kiki if he thinks Gallo will have an A) better then, B) equal to or C) worse career than Skita.

That would get it rolling.

Posted by newyorknewyork:

The Nets are said to be interested in drafting 19-year-old Italian small forward Danilo Gallinari. The Knicks are believed to be high on him, too, and since they draft sixth, Gallinari may not be available when the Nets' turn comes up.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/nets/2008/06/24/2008-06-24_rod_thorn_says_nets_pick_in_draft_is_to_.html

"The Knicks are going to take Danilo Gallinari," Nets president Rod Thorn said last night, referring to the Italian forward who had been at the top of his wish list all month. "And the others have yet to make up their minds. Which means that we still have three or four different guys who can drop to us."

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/06/content_to_see_who_falls_their.html

The deadline for pulling out of the draft has passed, Gallinari is sticking around, and that may serve as ample confirmation that the agent is right.

"I think Jersey has given him a guarantee," the agent said. "Though it's more like, 'If you're still around at 10, we'll take you.' Just to keep him in it, a promise that they're not going to pass on him."

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/06/gallinari_guarantee.html