Crossposted on Blazersedge.com:

"An avulsion fracture is when a small piece of the bone where a tendon or ligament is attached gets pulled off. Basically, there’s some serious force placed on that attachment point usually from a twisting that pulls the tendon/ligament farther than it’s supposed to or can go. Something has to give, and it can be a small piece of the bone at that attachment point. In the mid-foot, it’s often the bone because there are numerous thick layers of tendon and ligament webbing them together.

I had an avulsion of my medial ankle due to a pronation sprain. (I was playing ultimate frisbee and landed wrong, rolled my foot “in” instead of the more usual “outward” roll. Very very painful.) The x-rays showed a small sliver of bone that had become detached, but the deltoid ligament was intact, which was the important part. In my x-ray, it looked like a small fingernail clipping.

In the foot, you don’t have to worry too much about the bones moving around, because there’s not much room to move around and because there are so many structural elements in there to keep things in place. Because of that, unless there are really severe fractures, immobilizing and resting the foot will allow the bones to knit back where they should be. There’s no structural damage to the bones right now, because it’s just a thin layer of the bone that gets pulled off. In fact, the bone knitting process can actually make the affected area stronger.

It sounds bad, but it’s actually a fairly common injury with a straightforward treatment and very good recovery results. This is not something to be significantly worried about right now. That being said, if he’s rushed back, it could become chronic. (Personally, I’m very confident that the Blazers will be very, very careful with his return.)"

If they get 50 games out of him this year, they'll be lucky. Poor Roy.

I don't know - Even when he was out playing he had this kind of Darius Miles "I don't have a clue" look about him. Bynum (heck, Gasol) didn't have much problem shoving him around.

He kind stood up top the post waited for someone else to do something and then rna to the hoop. Not a lot of good foot movment either.

And he's overweight.

Steve is right. The injury doesn't concern me as much as the way he looked out there. He looked lost. Like the game was moving way faster than he was able to process. I can't imagine that is related to the injury at all. Maybe the bright lights of LA freaked him out. Heck, maybe he saw Paris Hilton at the hotel and she wasn't wearing any underwear. I would like someone to account for all those bricks.

It was it first game in the NBA after not playing for a year. Did you honestly think (prior to his injury) his play was going to be that polished?

Sam Bowie redux

He had 13 minuted on the floor in his first professonal game...at the Staples Center...with Kobe Bryant...after not playing is a real game for over a year.

Of course he is going to look confused!

My God you guys are harsh.

Meanwhile, the one who got away . . .

http://www.nba.com/2008/news/features/art_garcia/10/29/garcia_durant_feature/

I wouldn't give up on Oden yet. But expect no Rookie of the Year performance. The jury's still out on what you're going to see.

And Nate had better come up with a better offense pretty soon. That stuff last night was truly anemic.

Is is too early to panic!

"his play was going to be that polished"

I'm not expecting Hakeem, but something that showed he had a concept of team play would have been nice after an entire pre-season of practice.

"Sam Bowie redux"

Ugh.... Can we PLEASE have a moratorium on Sam Bowie references and general angst? That was TWENTY-FOUR years ago!

I'd also like a total ban on any further celebrations of the '77 Blazers.

I'm just sayin'

'Ugh.... Can we PLEASE have a moratorium on Sam Bowie references and general angst? That was TWENTY-FOUR years ago!'

Just proving once again that history is destined to repeat itself....

One wonders again if the Blazers have in fact REPEATED the single worst draft pick in sports history.....

Thaddeus,

For that to be true, Durant would have to be the next Michael Jordan.

I'm not very good at math, but I believe that "Durant

It cracks me up when people who have obviously never played a day of competitive basketball in their life chime in about how bad he looks blah, blah, blah. Basketball is one of those sports where you have to play significant minutes to get to the point where you are in game shape. You can do all the running, biking, weightlifting you want, but it's just not the same as game time. At the NBA level it's exponentially more difficult for those who don't get a lot of minutes. He needs a frikin' chance to get a series of games under his belt, without a ton of weight on his shoulders. Obviously, just from the little bit he played you can tell he's a total force to contend with in the paint as far as blocking/changing shots, etc. As for his lack of offensive productivity in his first 13 minutes I would point to the fact that even Brando Roy was 0 for whatever in the first half as well.

Let's remember that we had Clyde the Glide and Jordan still had not proven himself in the NBA.

Bigs get hurt, remember Bill Walton was not healthy after his championship season with us.

Oden is going to be fine, he's only making a rookies salary and Darius Miles is getting 14 million to go to topless bars.

We have a great team...just wait. In a few years we will be punishing the "over the hill Lakers." That's right, I said it.

Usual Kevin, you're dead on.

My next door neighbor of many years growing up was the older brother of George Irvine. He wasn't a household name, but he played for the Virginia Squires in the ABA with Dr. J and George Gervin (creating the spectacularly named Erving-Gervin-Irvine trio), and he eventually became the head coach of the Indiana Pacers for a few years.

Mr. Irvine would come out and visit his brother from time to time and we kids got to talk to him occasionally. It was amazing how, no matter what the setting, some adult - doctors, realtors, teachers, businessmen, pretty much anybody - would start telling him how he should coach, what players he should trade for, etc. He accepted all of it pretty well, with a small smile and not saying much.

One of the kids once asked him how he coped with all the people telling him how to do his job. He replied, "I've been around pro basketball for over twenty years. Any fan who asks you a question about hoops is worth talking to. Any fan who tells me how to do my job is an idiot."