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TrueBlue
Posts: 29144
Alba Posts: 12
Joined: 9/20/2006
Member: #1172
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Alright this guy has vaulted into my Top 10 most liked players in the NBA
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Facing Tuesday's 1 1/2-hour surgery to repair the gruesome lower-leg injury that fractured his fibula and spun his left foot to an inhuman angle, Jorge Garbajosa was asked for his preference of anaesthesia. There were, the story goes, two options: the full-body knockout or a needle in the lower back to numb everything below the waist.
"Garbo says to the doctor, `Just give me the back shot because I want to see what you're doing,'" said Maurizio Gherardini, the Raptors assistant general manager, flashing a broad smile as he told the tale. "That's the kind of guy he is."
Garbajosa was undeniably being mythologized yesterday by those who know him best. The other joke was that the hearty Spaniard would have opted to have the surgery done on the cold hardwood floor in Boston where his first NBA season ended Monday night if it would shorten his rehab by a day. So take the accounts of superhuman will with a grain of salt, but the sentiment that runs through them is sincere.
To wit, after Garbajosa was discharged from Toronto Western Hospital yesterday, there may or may not be truth to the rumour he was testing his capacity to make the 20-footer standing on his remaining good foot.
"I said, `Jorge, you don't play tonight,'" Gherardini quipped. "The problem we're going to have with Jorge is to force him to follow all the steps that he has to follow (in recovery). Because he's going to try to (do too much)."
Last night, when a sign held aloft at the Air Canada Centre read, "This One's For Garbo," the Raptors played as though they were juiced on post-injury adrenaline. They ran up a 23-point lead on the Heat, the defending champions adrift without their best player, Dwyane Wade. And they didn't relent en route to a 96-83 win that saw them take over third place in the Eastern Conference.
Garbajosa didn't attend the game; he was presumably at his Harbourfront condominium with his wife, Ainho, where the healing had already begun. The player is moving around with the help of crutches, "but only from the bed to the couch," said Jose Calderon, Garbajosa's countryman and teammate. Garbajosa's fractured fibula was repaired with the help of two alloy screws, each about 2 1/2 inches long. And though the bone will begin to mend in relatively short order, it's the damage to the soft tissue around the ankle, the ligaments and assorted connectors, that will take longer. Dr. Paul Marks, the club's physician, said it's "possible" Garbajosa could be back on a basketball court in six months, in time for training camp. Though European reports have quoted the player vowing to represent Spain in the European basketball championship, starting Sept.3 in Garbajosa's hometown of Madrid, that possibility seems unlikely. But long-range forecasts are inherently tricky.
Still, if good wishes have the power to speed recovery, the Spaniard has an advantage over the typical post-surgical patient. Gherardini said he's been inundated with calls and text messages and emails from overseas wishing a fallen athlete the best. "They always envision him as the ideal loyal fighting warrior that the game should need," he said.
Marks debunked the warrior mystique a little. He pointed out that, although Garbajosa might have been man enough to watch the inner workings of his ankle being reassembled, a sheet would have obscured the athlete's view of the bloody surgical field. Additional drugs would have made him barely aware of his surroundings. But there's a reason why you never heard somebody tell stories like those when, say, Vince Carter had knee surgery so many years ago.
"He's such a fierce competitor in everything he does, that he's not going to accept the fact mentally that he's injured," Gherardini said. "We're going to have a tough time to make him understand that he's injured.
"Somehow we need to embrace him and just say, `Hey, Jorge, slow down. One step at a time. We'll get you back.'"
[Edited by - TrueBlue on 03-29-2007 3:05 PM]
LMFAO @ the Bio [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephon_Marbury[/url]
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3/29/2007 7:26 PM
