Haslem Playing Through Fractured Pinky

[Fillmoe]

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By Ira Winderman
Staff Writer
Posted December 1 2005
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[FONT=Verdana,Arial, Helvetica] ATLANTA· Considering one alternative, Udonis Haslem has decided to play through the fractured pinky on his right hand.

No sooner did the Heat power forward reveal he had sustained the injury late in Monday's victory over the Knicks then teammates offered a simple solution.

"Yeah," he said with a smile before Wednesday's game against the Hawks, "they've been talking about Ronnie Lott."

For those unfamiliar, the Hall of Fame defensive back, then with the 49ers, in 1985 elected to have the bone of his left pinky shaved down after it became lodged in the helmet of Dallas' Timmy Newsome, in order to be available for a playoff game the following week.

"No. I'm not cutting mine off," Haslem said. "I don't think he needed his to tackle. I need mine to shoot."

Haslem remains unclear how or when he was injured.

"The only play I could think of is when I dove on a loose ball right before I came out," he said of his exit in Monday's third quarter. "When I came out, that's when I felt it. But I can't say that's exactly when it happened. Maybe my adrenaline was going down and that's the first time I felt it."

Haslem played last season's Eastern Conference finals against Detroit with a splint on a dislocated ring finger on his left, non-shooting hand.

"I'm going to see how I deal with it," he said. "If it's a situation where I'm hurting the team and hurting myself, then it would be smart to sit out."

He grimaced after converting his first shot Monday, a dunk with 2:12 to play in the first quarter.


source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-heatnote01dec01,0,4189701.story
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[Kings113]

Quite risky, indeed.

 

[DeAtHrOw]

Not only that, Udonis Haslem is known throughout the league as an exceptional shooter and not much else

 

[bdouble013]

I was just going to mention that Deathrow. I criticize Peja as much as the next guy (ok....maybe more so), but Haslem playing with a fractured pinky and Peja playing with a fractured pinky are two different animals.

 

[DeAtHrOw]

I was just going to mention that Deathrow. I criticize Peja as much as the next guy (ok....maybe more so), but Haslem playing with a fractured pinky and Peja playing with a fractured pinky are two different animals.

Unfortunately some people fail to grasp that concept, next thing you know they will be posting about soccer players playing with fractured pinkies and blasting Peja for not doing the same.

 

[Zyphen]

So Peja's sprain has upgraded to a fracture now? A finger break is actually a real injury. So more props to Haslem. Though if he was a guard, I wouldn't blame him for sitting out with a BROKEN finger. He could still play with it though cause it's his pinky. Most star guards play through worse. Though a roleplayer (like Haslem) would hurt more than help.

Peja used to rebound, hustle (relative to now), and played like he cared before he had a baby. People forget that. Now it's okay for him to be even more 1-dimensional than he already was. We used to get on him for that but these 2 years, he's been taking it to an extreme. He's determined to become completely irrelevant in every other aspect of the game. And his homer fans are of course, ok with that.

Peja has the ability to contribute in other areas of the game. We've all seen it. He just rarely chooses to grace us with the effort and even less so in recent years.