Klay Thompson’s previously-undiagnosed concussion could bring a needed change to NBA protocol
There have just been 52 reported concussions amongst 400-some players since the NBA put its concussion testing protocol in place four years ago. Considering the speed and action that the game expects, the league is somewhat lucky to have so few amongst its ranks, even if the two suspected concussions to star guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson set the NBA on its ear last week.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
During the Western Conference finals Curry fell on his head and Thompson took a shot to the head from Houston’s Trevor Ariza, who was also inadvertently involved in the collision that sent Curry to the floor. Both Golden State Warrior guards were cleared to return to action following a run through the league’s concussion protocal tests, with Stephen returning for some so-so action in the second half of Game 4 and Thompson being held out at the last minute after doctors discovered a cut to his ear in Game 5.
Both displays also scared the hell out of a league that hasn’t had to deal with as much all that often, because NBA players don’t exactly queue up at the line of scrimmage dozens of times a game. This is why National Basketball Players Association chief Michele Roberts has hired independent neurologists to study the league’s “protocol” in determining what is and what isn’t a concussion.
This is something that even the best doctors can’t be expected to accurately confirm within the time frame that a quarter and a half provides. From the Associated Press:
”That number is sufficient to make us all look at whether we want to risk a player’s health for a game,” she said. ”To say it happens so rarely or doesn’t happen frequently enough to change the rules is not enough. We’re talking potentially about someone’s life. I don’t think we should play an odds game when it comes to a player’s life.”
Roberts echoed the thoughts of many when she told the AP she was “mortified” at seeing Curry and Thompson cleared to return to game action after their blows.
Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the director of the league’s concussion program for the NBA, told the AP that the Warriors followed the right course of action:
Kutcher said about 25 percent of concussions don’t show symptoms until hours – or even a day – after the injury.
”That’s just the nature of the injury,” he said. ”One of the fallacies that we deal with is the idea that every concussion can be diagnosed if only they would have looked hard enough. That is an absolute fallacy.”
Dr. Kutcher is absolutely correct, but he also might be making the players union’s eventual tipping point for them.
It ran a distant second to “wanting to see Stephen Curry hit the floor” or “wanting to see Klay Thompson take a knee to the head,” but absolutely nobody wanted to see either Curry or Thompson sit out the rest of the contest after their injuries. Curry and Thompson also followed in lockstep with fans’ hopes and wishes – those dudes wanted to play.
It is, despite years of training and recognition of both symptoms both obvious to the layman and only evident to the professional, tough to accurately diagnose a concussion in the immediate aftermath, as Dr. Kutcher pointed out. Though nobody wants to lose the ability to watch Curry (who was later cleared of having suffered a concussion) and Thompson (who wasn’t) down the stretch of a game, it is probably in everyone’s best interest to turn this into a blanket, non-negotiable “protocol.”
Mandatory protocol is usually an anathema for those that want to think on their feet, but it is probably in the players’ and league’s best interest to declare a player out for the rest of the game after taking a shot as Curry and Thompson did. For it to only take a heretofore unseen bleeding gash in Thompson’s ear to prevent him from playing against Ariza and Dwight Howard with an undiagnosed concussion is frightening to say the least.
Curry and Thompson’s incidents were the very definition of an anomaly. Teams rarely see two teammates suffer concussions within the course of one full regular season, much less in consecutive games. Toss in the nationally televised, playoff setting and the fact that these two teammates happen to have the rare multi-player nickname (“The Splash Brothers”), the two knocks to the head came off as the Great Epidemic That Wasn’t.
This isn’t an epidemic. These were borderline random, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to look into this further. Even while mindful of the league’s rather progressive and forward-thinking concussion protocol.
Roberts, to her credit, doesn’t mind acting as the bad gal here. From the AP:
Roberts knows talk of holding players out could be unpopular among her constituents, who are often more concerned about staying on the court than their long-term health.
And she’s OK with that.
”It’s not for them to decide,” Roberts said. ”They’re not doctors.”
Thompson, not a doctor, thankfully passed the NBA’s concussion tests on Tuesday and will play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. From Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears:
“I felt great, honestly, these past few days,” Thompson said after the Warriors’ practice on Tuesday. “I feel like I’m getting my wind back. Tomorrow is the final tune-up and I’m just trying to stop the nerves and anxiousness or even the doubt as much as possible.”
Thompson still has a scar in his ear from when Houston forward Trevor Ariza kicked him in the head. Thompson participated in the Warriors’ entire practice on Tuesday and played the full 10 minutes in two separate scrimmages. He is still trying to strengthen his conditioning after missing two practices and took extra shots after practice at the Warriors’ facility.
This is fantastic news. Luckily, NBA fans were given the best possible scenario for something as frightening as this.
Golden State owned a 3-0 lead in the series and was well on its way to blowout loss when Curry fell, and the team was just as well on its way toward a series-clinching win when Thompson had to leave Game 5. From there, the team had an eight day layoff, the longest in NBA history, between the Western Conference finals and the NBA Finals. Nobody had to get into arguments about bringing Klay Thompson back for the crucial stretch of a deciding Game 7, or clear him for suiting up for a Game 1 just four days later.
That, and Thompson and Curry’s determination to play, are not the point.
It’s about Player X and Player Y, whose seasons ended in April and May, sitting at home and watching this play out. Relating to Curry and Thompson’s insistence on getting back onto the court, but also wondering if their own team doctors should have the right to make such a decision in the moment. These are the same doctors, medical and training staff that are on call literally 24/7/365 for these players, ready the drop of a contact lens to fish for said lens on a basketball court during a timeout, rush over to a player’s house for treatment at all hours, or to work into the dead of night at the practice facility during August as the player strips it all down for One Last Great Season.
Still, it’s OK to worry, and it’s certainly just as OK to have a union behind you to ask all the questions that you don’t want to bring up with your own medical staff – your co-worker and oftentimes friend.
These doctors know what they’re doing, and nobody here is accusing them of acting as company men and women in pushing a player out to be the key figure in a 12-2 stretch that decides the game in the fourth quarter. If they see the signs, they’ll sit the guy.
For the safety of all involved, however, it might be best to take the figurative ball out of their hands in the heat of the moment.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
