From Doncic's ankle to Jordan's fever: heroes who astonished injured

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Before Luka Doncic left the ward limping and with the help of an assistant, X-rays ruled out major ills in his left ankle. The kink had been very ugly, but he had some option to play. Ahead a time trial that, according to the ABC network, began that same morning at the hotel with the first treatment session. A career that ended with 43 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists and a triple winner over the horn. A memorable performance that already has a place alongside other great deeds of an injured player in the history of the playoffs.

On Saturday morning, after passing the daily coronavirus test, Doncic underwent recovery sessions . One at 10.30 and another at 12.30. After eating, I work without impact in the pool, light session in the weight room and more rehabilitation. At five in the afternoon, another X-ray to see the evolution of the ankle. At 6.30pm, and every two hours until 10.30pm, more sessions with the Dallas Mavericks physios. I work from sunrise to sunset so that the Slovenian could get to the game.

On Sunday, as soon as they get up and fulfill the obligations of the bubble (each morning, the players measure their temperature and oxygen saturation before leaving their room to pass the daily test), more work in the pool. And after the pre-game meeting with the whole team, more recovery work until the opening whistle. An hour before the game, the Mavs announced that Doncic was ready. What happened next already belongs to history.

Doncic took over the game as few players, even less than 21 years old, can. The Slovenian has an amazing ability to read the match and make it his own. Impose your own pace. It's bouncing, reading, footwork, and body control. It is the courage to move outside the height of the moment. It didn't matter that he had a title contender in front of him, the Clippers; that one of the most dominant players in the NBA, Kawhi Leonard , gave him an answer; or that he did not have his second sword, Kristaps Porzingis , next to him .

Luka Doncic led the comeback of some Mavs who lost by 21 points in the first half. In the third period, he alone generated more points (25) than all the Clippers altogether (19). He played 46 minutes out of a possible 53 , more than in any other game of his career. The few times he sat down, he was still receiving treatment on the bench. And in the last minute of extra time, he lost his head. A board penetration, a reverse and that already unforgettable triple on the horn.

Jordan's 'Flu Game'

When the phone in his room rang at three in the morning, Tim Grover knew it could only be bad news. "Come running to Michael's room." That night Jordan had been late for dinner and had ordered a pizza to eat alone. According to Grover, word had spread about which hotel the Bulls were staying at and five guys had shown up to deliver the pizza. "This smells bad for me". "Bah, fuck you," Jordan said. When Grover entered the room, he found him writhing on the floor in a fetal position.

Pause here: In the extensive mythology about Game 5 of the 1997 Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, there has been much speculation about the reasons for Jordan's indisposition. In its day it was said that it was a cold, and that is why it is remembered as the 'Flu Game', but in 'Playing For Keeps', the best biography about Jordan, pulitzer David Halberstam already assured that it was food poisoning, as confirmed Jordan himself in 'The Last Dance'. Other theories spoke of a night out and even a golf marathon.

In what there is no doubt is that, when the bodyguards notified Chip Schaefer , the physical trainer of the Bulls, Jordan was in bed, buried in blankets in the middle of June and with almost 38 of fever. He had spent the night with nausea, vomiting, and a headache. Schaefer treated him all day, but Jordan made it to the pavilion barely able to stand. The images of the warm-up and rest show him extremely weak. "Jordan has quite black skin and that day he was a mixture of white and gray."

But Jordan, with a competitive instinct that has only been replicated in Bill Russell and Kobe Bryant , dominated a vital game for the Bulls. 'His Majesty' finished with 38 points (15 in the fourth quarter), 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. The indelible image of that victory (90-88) is that of a completely exhausted Jordan, surrendered on the shoulder of Scottie Pippen , unable to walk on his own foot.

'Here comes Willis!'

It was 1970 and there were no cell phones, so Knicks fans crowded under the marquees of Madison Square Garden waiting for news of their captain. Willis Reed had been injured in Game 5 of the Finals, he had not played the sixth, they had lost to the Lakers, and no one knew if he could be in the final. Although the newspapers said that he had a severe blow to the hip, the result of a bad fall, in reality that was the least. Reed also had a torn quadriceps and could barely walk, but he had already made up his mind: "Even on all fours, I play."

Reed received two injections before the game, one of cortisone and another of mepivacaine, an anesthetic to numb the area, and went out to test himself. There were a couple of hours until the game and the only audience was his coach, Red Holzman, a group of journalists, and a head that stood out above the rest: Wilt Chamberlain , who had not stopped asking if anyone had news. Reed tried a few free throws, without even moving from the spot, and returned to the locker room. "What? How do you look?" Chamberlain asked him. "Well, not very there." When he left, Reed's smile escaped. Wilt was nervous.

Minutes before the game, with the warm-up already underway, a roar shook Madison: Willis Reed limped out of the locker room tunnel ready to play. "I will never forget the faces of three of the best players in history. Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West . They were stunned. They stopped warming up and just stood there, watching Willis. There I said to myself, 'To these we already have them, '" Walt Frazier recalled decades later . The outburst was only greater when Reed, playing on one leg, made his first two shots of the game. If there are stage victories, that one was.

Luka Doncic's feat in the fourth round of the series against the Clippers belongs to these measures. A performance that already belongs to his future legend

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• basketball
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