This appears in the NBA website.
The Kings of Pain
Five clutch NBA
play-off performances by injured players
by rick olivares
The Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Bogut is out even
before they can play Game One of their series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The big Aussie is out indefinitely after sustaining a rib fracture. The
Warriors brass have given no timetable for his return.
Should G-State leapfrog past the favored Clippers –
and the operative word is should – will he make a comeback ala Willis Reed? Now
that would be something.
The NBA’s regular season is grueling 41 games at home
and another 41 exhausting matches on the road. Teams all play to move on to the
NBA’s second season… the play-offs. Once there, no one gets winded. Teams play
tougher defense and everyone fights tooth and nail to defend their homecourt
and to hopefully steal a game or two on the road. No one goes through the grind
of a long season to just lose and pocket a few extra thousand bucks. After all,
history doesn’t remember its losers except in the Hall of Shame. So if the
Warriors advance and put themselves to win a crucial series who knows if Bogut
will rise out of sick bay just to play?
But that is all speculation. What follows is a list
of players who rose above injuries and illnesses, even against team doctors’
orders to give their team that extra lift with the game, the series, or the
championship in line. And whatever the result, win or lose, they rode into the
sunset with their legend and their place in history secure.
A gutsy performance
Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls 1987 Game 5 NBA Finals
at the Delta Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
The situation: The Bulls held serve on the court via
a game winning shot by Michael Jordan over the Jazz’ Bryon Russell in Game One
(that foreshadowed his series’ clinching shot against the Jazz and Russell once
again the following year) and a rout in Game 2 when the team was hitting on all
cylinders. The Jazz fed off the energy of a raucous home crowd to even up the
series 2-2 heading into the pivotal Game 5. Despite the loss, the Bulls’ still
went into the game with guarded optimism. “We still have an opportunity to go
one up on this series,” chipped in the Bulls’ do-it-all forward Scottie Pippen
in the post-game press conference.
The night before, Jordan had a sleepless night not
because he was seeing red because of Utah’s all-star combo of John Stockton and
Karl Malone but because of some bad pizza. By daybreak, he was dehydrated. His
sudden illness cast a pall of gloom over the Bulls’ locker room. Faced with the
daunting task of trying to wrest back momentum before a revved up Utah Jazz and
one of the League’s noisiest arenas, the Bulls received a measure of comfort that the King dressed up
for the game. Keen basketball observers know that aside from crunch time, games
like these usually find Jordan giving a superhuman effort.
But even on this day
superhuman was an understatement.
With Malone having his way against Dennis Rodman and
Luc Longley, Jordan kept the Bulls in the game with his big time shots and
drives to the basket. Even at less than a
100%, there was no one on the Jazz who could stop MJ. Ominously, despite a weakened
Jordan, the Jazz couldn’t put the Bulls away. “With our inability to blow the
game wide open, we let the Bulls hang
around,” confessed former Utah coach Frank Layden who was then the team’s GM.
“In a situation like that, you know that Michael’s going to figure out a way to
win.”
By halftime, the Jazz led only by four 53-49. The
game was a tense back and forth battle highlighted by a gutsy performance from
Jordan. With 26 seconds left in the game, Pippen posted up the Jazz’ Jeff
Hornacek, a move that saw Stockton double down low. Fatal mistake. When no one rotated out to guard a wide-open
Jordan straddling the three-point line, Scottie passed back out to Michael who
stuck a three-point dagger into the hearts of the Jazz and their faithful. The
Men in Red held on for the win.
And in one of the most memorable scenes in NBA basketball history, a fatigued
Jordan slumped against Pippen who helped carry him off the court as grateful
teammates mobbed him.
In the post-game press conference, Jordan, who scored
a game-high 38 points, told the
assembled media horde that “I didn’t want to give up. No matter how sick I was,
tired I was, low on energy I was, I felt an obligation to my team and the city
of Chicago to give that extra effort.”
And that extra effort served the Bulls well because
they were able to close out this unexpectedly tough foe on June 13, 1997 for
their fifth Larry O’Brien trophy of the decade.
A dramatic entrance
Willis
Reed, New York Knicks 1970 Game 7 NBA Finals Madison Square Garden, New York
Take some notes, Bogut!
It was a magical time for the world’s greatest city.
The year before, Joe Namath led the Jets to its first and only Super Bowl
victory. And those amazing Mets followed suit nine months later by beating the
odds for their first World Series title behind Tom Seaver and company.
By then too, the ingredients for a champion Knicks
team had come together. Former GM Eddie Donovan and then-GM/coach Red Holzman
had shrewdly put together a cohesive team that put a premium on teamwork and
had made a glorious run towards the championship.
They were up against the Los Angeles Lakers who were
teeming with star power what with the nigh unstoppable Wilt Chamberlain manning
the slot and a pair of terrific scorers in Elgin Baylor and Jerry West to
complement the Big Dipper.
In the fifth game of the series at New York, the
Knicks’ captain and center Willis
Reed was forced out of the game because of a painful thigh injury. The Lakers
proceeded to bury the Knicks by 16 points but yet still failed to put the
resilient home team away who rallied for a win. “That was the greatest comeback in the history of
basketball,” offered the rival Celtics’ superstar John Havlicek.
But that Game Five win was run on pure adrenaline.
Returning to Los Angeles, the Stilt manhandled Dave DeBusschere and the
emotionally-spent Gothamites by raining down 45 points and hauling down 27 rebounds
to set up a game seven.
Reed had stayed home in New York and had two days of
intense treatment. “I’ll play if I have to crawl,” said the Knicks’ captain
through gritted teeth as took he cortisone and carbocaine shots to play in this
ultimate game.
When the Lakers traveled one last time to the Big
Apple they were expecting to
close down the scrappy Knicks who have given them all they could handle.
Without Reed, they’d have a field day in the lane.
When the teams ran out to the court for their
warm-ups, there was an air of uncertainty amongst the restless Garden crowd.
Five minutes before tip-off, Reed came out of the locker room dragging his
right leg behind. The Garden erupted into one massive Bronx cheer as
white-hankies waved all around. “Willis’ presence was a psychological lift for
us,” beamed Walt Frazier who could have been the hero of that game (his stat line
read a telling 36 points and 19 assists) had Reed not provided an emotional
lift that turned the tide.
As Reed strode onto the Garden floor, Chamberlain
smiled thinking that the Knicks’ center would be easy pickings. But when Reed
nailed the first two shots of the game – his only points of the match and the
Garden reaching a deafening crescendo, the Knicks caught fire and were up by 29 before halftime. The Lakers rallied
but the lead was so huge to overcome that they ran out of gas in the fourth
quarter losing 113-99.
“The courage Willis demonstrated was incredible,”
graciously related teammate Bill Bradley who chipped in 17 points to the
title-clinching win. “I had chills before the game. Willis not only played on
one leg but he kept Wilt from hitting. Chamberlain had only 16 shots. Reed kept
forcing him out and cutting his path to the basket.”
Summed up Holzman in the afterglow of the victory,
“Willis rates with the greatest in courage. But that’s what you expect with
him.”
The game face of Larry Bird
Larry Bird, Boston Celtics Game 5 1991 First Round
Series Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
In the early 90s, Boston and Indiana were headed into
different directions. Boston was on what many didn’t know then was their last
great run towards a title with its
Hall of Fame frontline of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Indiana
was still a few years away from joining the league’s elite but had a very good
team with Chuck Person, Reggie Miller, and Detlef Schrempf to reckon with.
Their regular season matches were skirmishes and now
in the first round of the Eastern
Conference play-offs, it was escalating into a war. What everyone got was one
of the most thrilling and memorable series in play-off history.
“We were young and inexperienced. We were fast and
brash. We could push and score. Defensively we weren’t very good so we played
with a style that we thought we could win with,” recalled Chuck Person who enjoyed
a fierce rivalry with Boston’s Birdman throughout their career.
In the Rifleman’s first ever pro game, he went up
against Boston’s Silent Assassin who told him to bring it every night lest he
get embarrassed. Person took Bird’s words to heart and went extra hard at him
every time they were on the court. During one game on a December night, Bird
told Person that he had a gift for him. In the fourth quarter, after Bird
nailed a clutch trey, he turned to Person who was seated on the bench and
tersely said, “Merry Christmas.” Person seethed and swore revenge.
As Boston opened its 1991 play-off campaign with
first-year coach Chris Ford
and the Kids (Brian Shaw, Reggie Lewis, Kevin Gamble, Dee Brown, and Stojko
Vrankovic) against the hungry turks from Indiana, everyone knew that it was going to be a shoot-out at
the OK Corral.
The Celtics outlasted the Pacers in Game One at home
with a 127-120 win. Bird notched a triple-double despite struggling from the
field. The following game, Person
strapped his team onto his back and scored 39 points to repay Boston in kind
with a 130-118 win.
With a chance to seize control of the series in
Indianapolis, the Pacers curiously dropped Game 3 at Market Square Arena as the
Rifleman scored a measly six points! Although they evened it up with a
nailbiting win in game four, facing Boston on a fifth and deciding game at
Boston Garden was courting disaster
and risking the ire of the ghosts of its fabled parquet.
Late in the second quarter, Bird crashed face first
onto the parquet while in pursuit of a loose ball. He stayed down for an
eternity as a hush descended down Celtic fans. When he got up and went to the
locker room, the drama only intensified. Boston was up by 10 at that point but
the lead joined Bird in the locker room
as the Pacers rallied to tie the score 58-all at the half.
When Boston coughed up the lead 82-79 the tension was
thicker than the smoke from Red
Auerbach’s cigar. Recalled Larry Legend, “The doctor told me I probably had a
concussion and he didn’t think I should go back out and damage my brain. I
decided that this could be my last game so I better go out there and give it
all I can.”
The crowd exploded when Bird came out of the tunnel
as broadcasters wondered aloud about Bird doing a Willis Reed. When Bird came
through the tunnel, Person thought to himself, “Well, here’s a second coming.”
Bird missed his first couple of shots but soon got on a roll.
Late in the game, Person drove the lane with Bird the
solitary defender. The Rifleman’s Cheshire cat grin turned into horror when
Bird ripped the ball from his hands and ignited a fastbreak of their own.
But Bird’s heroics aside (32 points on 12-19 shooting
in the finale for an 18.0 average in this series), Indiana made almost a
miraculous comeback but fell short when he took a three pointer with Derek
Smith and Bird in his face while falling
away. Celtic point guard Brian Shaw who was fouled on the rebound play made
good on his two free throws for the final points as the Celtics advanced to the
next round with a 124-121 win.
The courage of Isiah
Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons, Game 6 NBA Finals at
the Great Western Forum, Los Angeles, California
He has been called pound-for-pound the toughest
player in the NBA. The description while apt for a boxer somehow fits the
scrappy 6-foot-1 guard who grew up in Chicago’s mean streets. It’s his
toughness that ultimately defined the Pistons’ Bad Boy image that still lasts
to this day.
Despite his Hall of Fame career and the back-to-back
titles he won with Motown in 1989-90, it is this one game in 1988 that best
illustrates his toughness.
In 1988, the Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who was in the twilight of his long and brilliant career),
and Big Game James were on a mission to repeat. A feat unheard of since the
1968-69 Celtic teams of the great Bill Russell. The last team standing was the
Pistons who had dispatched the Celtics after years of play-off futility. Both
teams were hungry for a title.
After stealing game one from the Lakers on their home
floor, the Pistons won two of the next three at the Pontiac Silverdome to go up
3-2. But clinching the championship in LA was going to be something else.
It was obvious that the Lakers’ title retention bid
was in jeopardy. They never faced any team remotely like Detroit. With the
team’s “D’s” – defense, depth, (Adrian) Dantley, (Joe) Dumars, and (Chuck)
Daly, the Lakers found themselves trying to match the Eastern Conference
upstarts macho for macho forgetting what got them into the NBA Finals for the
seventh time in nine years – rebounding and running.
Detroit’s gritty half court game threw LA’s
finely-tuned Rolls Royce offense into a grinding halt. In the pivotal Game 6,
the Lakers led 56-48 early in the 3rd quarter when Isiah Thomas went
into another zone skipping and hopping and exploding for 14 points. Said Magic
Johnson of Isiah’s performance, “When Isiah’s skipping and hopping, that means
he’s in his rhythm and he’s ready to take over.”
But with four minutes left in the quarter, Thomas
came down awkwardly on Michael Cooper’s foot and crashed to the floor in a
heap. He had severely sprained his ankle and had to be helped to the bench. But
with the game and the championship within grasp, he pulled himself together and
checked back into the game 35 seconds later. Even if hobbled on the court
Thomas continued to torch the Lakers.
With a minute left in the game, the Pistons held a
102-99 lead. Just as the Larry O’Brien trophy and the champagne was being
wheeled into the Pistons’ locker room, the Lakers came back with Byron Scott
caning a jumper and Jabbar connecting on two free throws to take the lead
103-102. The Pistons would muff their final offensive and the Lakers had their
swagger back. They closed out the Pistons in the seventh and deciding game but
not without going through another war.
Thomas’ final stat line read an incredible 43 points,
eight assists, and six steals all on a jammed pinkie, a poked eye, a scratched
face, and a severely sprained ankle. Isiah and his team may have lost the
championship, but his gritty and amazing performance ranks with one of the
greatest performances in NBA basketball history. But perhaps even better, he
won enough respect to last him an eternity.
The breaks of the (early) game
George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers Game 6 BAA Finals,
Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis
In the nascent days of the NBA, the Basketball
Association of America (BAA) and the National basketball League (NBL) merged to
give the fledging BAA what it needed to becoming a force in the American
sporting scene...
In 1948, the NBL’s Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester
Royals, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, and Indianapolis Jets joined the major
market franchises of New York Knicks, Chicago Stags, Boston Celtics, and
Philadelphia Warriors. The Lakers’ George Mikan was the game’s biggest name and
draw. In fact, when the Lakers traveled to face the Knicks at Madison Square
Garden, the game was billed as George Mikan versus the Knicks. While Mikan led
the league in scoring with a then-whopping 28.3 points per game (that accounted
for 1/3 of his team’s total output), he was aided ably by Jim Pollard (the
father of current Indiana forward Scott), Vern Mikkelsen, and Slater Martin
behind the coaching of John Kundla.
The Royals edged the Lakers by one game to earn a bye
for the Western Division Championship as Minneapolis had to square off with
Chicago for the right to play them and if ever move on to the BAA Finals.
With the agile Mikan at his best, the Lakers swept
Chicago and Rochester in a pair of best-of-three series to book a trip to the
BAA Finals against Arnold “Red” Auerbach’s Washington Capitols.
The Lakers looked to make short work of the caps as
they zoomed to three successive wins to go up 3-0.
In Game 4, Mikan broke his wrist and the Capitols
rallied to win the game and stay alive. Washington fanned the flames of their
flickering championship embers when they won their second straight despite
Mikan playing with a cast in his hand and scoring 22 points. But back in the
friendly confines of Minneapolis, they ended any more miraculous comeback by
the Caps by blowing them off the court with a sound 77-56 thrashing for their
first championship. Mikan averaged 30.3 points in the post-season and was voted
unanimously the MVP.
Honorable
Mention:
Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, Game 5 1980 NBA
Finals, Great Western Forum. After twisting his ankle that would eventually
knock out for Game 6, the Lakers’ MVP gamely played on and held the
Philadelphia 76ers at bay allowing LA to go up 3-2 before heading back East.
Four
players who took a seat when their team needed them the most:
1. Wilt Chamberlain Game 7 1969 NBA
Finals – In 1969, the Lakers were heavily favored to win their first title
since moving to Los Angeles. They were up against old nemesis Boston who at
this point barely made the finals on the strength of its old and battered
line-up. But these were the 10-time champs and with Bill Russell manning the
slot in the seventh game, his final NBA game, he was looking to go out a
winner.
With six minutes to play and Boston up by nine,
Chamberlain hurt his leg and asked out. Instead of folding, the Lakers pulled
within one. Chamberlain asked LA Coach Bill Van Breda Kolff if he could return
but was instead asked to sit. Breda Kolff assumed that the Big Dipper copped
out when his team seemed on the verge of being blown out and wasn’t really
injured to begin with. The Celtics won 108-106. The resulting controversy about
Wilt’s resolve hounded him until his final days as a player who despite his
enormous strength and awesome talent couldn’t win the big one.
2. Patrick
Ewing, 1999 NBA Finals – In the strike-shortened season, the Knicks were up
against the San Antonio’s Twin Towers of David Robinson and Tim Duncan. After
injuring himself in the Eastern Finals against Indiana, Ewing sat leaving a
young Marcus Camby to hold the fort along with the fiery Latrell Sprewell and
Allan Houston. Without Ewing and a hobbling Larry Johnson, New York had no
answer to the Spurs’ Twin Towers. San Antonio romped away with its first title
4-1. Said the Spurs’ Mario Elie, “It’s scary to think what would have happened
if they had a healthy Ewing and Johnson. It might have been a different
series.”
3. Byron Scott
and James Worthy, Game 5 1991 NBA Finals With their dynasty on its last
legs after being put on the ropes by rising power Chicago, Scott and Worthy
showed up in street clothes prior to Game 5 with the Bulls holing a 3-1 series
lead. It should be noted that Michael Jordan was playing on an infected toe
during the time but despite the pain, MJ gutted it out to lead the Bulls. AC
Green, Sam Perkins, and Terry Teagle would rise to the occasion to complement
Magic Johnson and Vlade Divac, but it was like screaming at a hurricane. The
Bulls’ first title ended the Showtime era Lakers for good and ushered in the
greatest dynasty the NBA has seen in three decades.
4. Jamal Mashburn Game 1 2002 NBA Eastern
Semi-finals Charlotte Hornets vs. New Jersey Nets. Mashburn has had a history
of choking during play-offs. He sat out the crucial Eastern Semi-final series
with a mysterious viral infection. New Jersey won game one and bounced the
Hornets in five games.
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