Top 5 returns by NBA players after gruesome injuries

Kyrie Irving played his first game after shattering his knee cap in last season’s FinalsEveryone who follows basketball knows that it’s a very intense and demanding sport. The bursts of speed, the lock-ups in the paint and the sheer physicality of playing at a high velocity for even a few minutes are extremely taxing on the body.Add to that the fact that most NBA players are much larger than the average person, and you have a disaster waiting to happen at any moment. A little knowledge of the human anatomy will tell you the enormous pressure that joints, ligaments and tendons bear when going through the rigours of a basketball game.Well aware of all that, NBA players are very cautious in preserving their physiques and incorporate a lot of preventive exercises in their training, in addition to the normal regimen. But despite all that, the nature of the game is such that a spur-of-the-moment reaction can topple all the precautions and preparation in an instant. Here, we take a look at some of the most hard to watch injuries that took place in the NBA and the resilience the players showed in coming back and continuing to make news for their gameplay:

#5 Rajon Rondo

One of the league’s best point guards is a trouble magnet and the same goes for afflictions, too. In game 3 of the 2011 Eastern Conference semi-finals, Rajon Rondo fall down in a tangle while guarding another player with injury troubles, Dwyane Wade.

Rondo, entwined with the Heat star, would instinctively try to cushion his fall with his left arm, and the elbow would dislocate instantly. Rondo would be helped off the court. He would return with his form unblemished, though, and continue to rack up the triple doubles.

#4 Derrick Rose

We were wondering which of Rose’s injuries to put on the list, and finally settled on his knee injury against the Philadelphia 76ers. The youngest player to win the MVP Award would come down hard on his left knee in game 1 of the first round Playoff of that year.

After being helped off the court, an MRI would reveal a torn ACL which would sideline him for the remainder of the season and the next. His return would be cut short by a torn meniscus. Rose would however, lead the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals in the 2014-15 season, where they would lose to eventual finalists, the Cavaliers. Rose is showing flashes of his MVP self in the current season, including 36 points in a quadruple overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons.

#3 Shaun Livingston

The second Warrior on the list suffered a horrific knee injury that ended the breakout season he was having with his then-team, the Los Angeles Clippers. Attempting a layup off a steal, Livingston would miss the shot, but his velocity would make his left leg snap almost perpendicularly.

The fall had torn all the major ligaments in his left knee – the ACL, the PCL and the MCL, the meniscus and dislocated his patella. The injury was so grievous that doctors were considering amputating the leg from the knee down.

Dark days would follow his rehabilitation and return, as Livingston would bounce from team to team. But there would be light at the end of the tunnel as he was picked by the Golden State Warriors in 2014, and became a mentor and an important bench player in their Championship run.

#2 Andrew Bogut

The Aussie big man was the number one overall pick in the 2005 Draft. Nearing the end of his fifth impressive season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Bogut, in a game against the Suns, would make a fast break dunk and land off-balance, using his right arm to break the fall.

The impact would dislocate his elbow and break his right hand. That would be the nascence of his injury problems. He would however, brave them and become the starting Center for the Golden State Warriors, playing a key role in their NBA Championship win in 2015.

This is how he suffered the injury:

#1 Paul George

This perhaps falls outside the purview of this assemblage, because it was at a Team USA practice game. But we’re not nitpicking, given the close association between the two. On August 1^st, during the off season, Paul George broke his lower right leg while trying to contest a James Harden lay-up.

The game was in preparation for the 2014 FIBA World Championships and George was a shoo-in for the roster, until that moment. George’s momentum would make him collide with the stanchion, resulting in a compound fracture of both bones in his lower right leg.

After a lengthy rehabilitation which kept him out for almost the whole regular season, George would don the Pacers jersey once again in April 2015, making a valuable 13 points as the Pacers defeated the Miami Heat.

George would erase the memory of the incident by becoming the lynchpin of his team and winning the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for October and November. He is in fact, one of the front runners for the MVP award.

Here’s a video of the injury: