http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14223134p-15048331c.html
A King's painful reminder
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, his jaw healed, faces Portland again.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, February 27, 2006
Shareef Abdur-Rahim takes on the elbow of his discontent tonight at Arco Arena.
And the Kings forward will be no less feisty and ferocious amid a sea of enemy arms.
The last time Abdur-Rahim faced his former team, the Trail Blazers, on Dec. 26, Portland's Zach Randolph inadvertently conked him in the jaw, breaking it.
Abdur-Rahim gutted out the rest of the game. The next day, he learned that he needed to have his mouth wired shut, meaning goodbye games and solid food and hello discomfort and mumbling.
And the most frustrating thing of all? No foul.
"I was mad," Abdur-Rahim said Sunday after practice. "The referee was right there. I'm laying on the floor after that elbow, and my man scores. ... That elbow really hurt. It was (like) getting hit, or punched, when you're not ready for it."
Randolph said then that he didn't mean to floor his old friend, that "Reef's my man."
Abdur-Rahim said he harbors no ill will. He missed 10 games. The wires are gone. He has regained his strength.
This time against the Trail Blazers, he'll wear a mouthpiece that is so bulky and wide it gives him chipmunk cheeks.
"The craziest thing is ever since junior high school, my father has been trying to get me to wear one," Abdur-Rahim said. "He tells me, 'You're down there in the paint.' I tried it once in high school and didn't like it. But I need it now."
About the writer: The Bee's Joe Davidson can be reached at jdavidson@sacbee.com.
A King's painful reminder
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, his jaw healed, faces Portland again.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, February 27, 2006
Shareef Abdur-Rahim takes on the elbow of his discontent tonight at Arco Arena.
And the Kings forward will be no less feisty and ferocious amid a sea of enemy arms.
The last time Abdur-Rahim faced his former team, the Trail Blazers, on Dec. 26, Portland's Zach Randolph inadvertently conked him in the jaw, breaking it.
Abdur-Rahim gutted out the rest of the game. The next day, he learned that he needed to have his mouth wired shut, meaning goodbye games and solid food and hello discomfort and mumbling.
And the most frustrating thing of all? No foul.
"I was mad," Abdur-Rahim said Sunday after practice. "The referee was right there. I'm laying on the floor after that elbow, and my man scores. ... That elbow really hurt. It was (like) getting hit, or punched, when you're not ready for it."
Randolph said then that he didn't mean to floor his old friend, that "Reef's my man."
Abdur-Rahim said he harbors no ill will. He missed 10 games. The wires are gone. He has regained his strength.
This time against the Trail Blazers, he'll wear a mouthpiece that is so bulky and wide it gives him chipmunk cheeks.
"The craziest thing is ever since junior high school, my father has been trying to get me to wear one," Abdur-Rahim said. "He tells me, 'You're down there in the paint.' I tried it once in high school and didn't like it. But I need it now."
About the writer: The Bee's Joe Davidson can be reached at jdavidson@sacbee.com.
