My story:
I’ll be 33 y/o at the end of the month. Up until my injury, I was playing basketball in a somewhat competitive atmosphere about 2-4 times per week. On Saturday, March 19th, I was about 3 games in when I stepped back slightly and lunged forward to stay with the man that I was guarding. As I moved forward, I heard a loud “pop” and simultaneously felt as if someone had kicked (or shot) me in the back of the left foot. I began limping around asking the guys on the sidelines if someone had, in fact, purposefully kicked me with the force of Bruce Lee. If only…
I showered at the gym, fearing that I’d be stuck in the ER of a downtown Philadelphia hospital for many hours in my sweaty gym clothes, and then hailed a cab to Jefferson Hospital. At this point, I should probably mention that my wife was 9 months pregnant and due any day. In fact, when I went to the gym that day I did so with some trepidation, fearing that while I was on the court, she might be calling my cell phone to tell her selfish/irresponsible husband that she was in labor. Oh, the irony; or perhaps karma.
Jefferson’s ER was a mess and the perfect visual for why we need universal health care or at least the implementation of Obama’s plan. It seemed to me that a majority of the patients in the waiting area were using the ER as a substitute for primary care. This is a discussion for another day. Anyway, as a result of the packed house at Jeffeson, we headed to Hahnemann University Hospital, where my friend happens to be the chief orthopedic resident. He arranged for me to be seen by the ortho resident on duty, who without much surprise, diagnosed me with a ruptured Achilles.
As I sat in the Hospital googling “achilles tendon rupture”, I came across this youtube clip of the Human Highlight Film going down in a similar fashion as me. You have to appreciate Barkley’s compassion as ‘Nique crutches his way past the cameras. By the way, for what it’s worth, although he was out for the entire year after the injury (January of ‘92), ‘Nique came back the next season and dropped over 29 ppg.
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