Its so simple. Padded underwear! 
Now our boys can crash the boards without fear of getting a charlie horse. Finally, they will be able to "never have any second thoughts about taking it to the hoop wearing the hexpad," just like dwayne wade!
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Padding up now all the rage in the NBA
Dec. 14, 2005. 05:17 AM
It is a sport invented more than a century ago by a bespectacled Canadian professor as a genteel gymnasium pastime, but basketball, played properly, hurts. The NBA trenches are treacherous, their denizens ever nursing bruised ribs and welted thighs and charley horses and hip pointers.
So perhaps it's not surprising that NBA players, tired of reaching for painkillers and a bag of ice, have been flocking to don the latest craze in equipment technology: Padded underwear.
Originally designed for British rugby players and popularized in North America by football brutes, the newfangled gear features a protective foam known by the trade name HexPad that is actually built into the form-fitting shorts and tank tops worn beneath uniforms.
It absorbs impact, not sweat. It conforms to the body in ways that previous generations of pads never have.
And so basketball players — who have traditionally played pad-free save for the occasional reliance on volleyball-style knee protection or a sleeve to cushion a wonky elbow — are now taking the court in undershorts buttressed with protection for the thighs, hips and tailbone, not to mention tank tops that dissipate blows to the ribs and spine.
Kevin DiPietro, the Raptors equipment manager who was introduced to the product at the annual meeting of his league-wide counterparts last summer, said more Raptors wear the padding than don't. Chris Bosh is among the converted.
"Before I started using it I had a lot of rib bruises and a lot of bumps and bruises — on my thighs, on my ribs, on my back," said Bosh. "I haven't noticed any bruises (this season), so I guess it works. So it's just a matter of being safe."
Bosh, indeed, has emerged as one of the game's top punishment takers, shooting 8.3 free throws per game this season — good for ninth in the league — up from 6.7 per game last year. Dwayne Wade, the Miami Heat guard who is second in the league in free-throw attempts with 11 per game — trailing Allen Iverson, who shoots 11.9 a night — is the lead spokesperson for the HexPad, which is manufactured by McDavid Sports Medical, a Chicago-area maker of everything from knee braces to jock straps.
"McDavid's protective gear is instrumental in keeping me on the court," Wade is quoted as saying on the company's website http://www.mcdavidusa.com. "I never have any second thoughts about taking it to the hoop wearing the HexPad."
Bob McDavid, who co-founded the company that patented the technology after buying it from a England-based company, said Wade's endorsement carries more weight because he wore the product before he was paid to wear it.
NBA players only came upon the HexPad last season, when Heat trainer Ron Culp was searching for lightweight protection for Shaquille O'Neal, the star centre, who'd been hampered by an injury in the rib area.
Culp got a HexPad shirt from the staff of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, who'd been using the undergarments as supplementary protection beneath football's high-tech shell.
Other Heat players, Wade among them, adopted the technology, not only to protect injuries but to prevent them. And it wasn't long before McDavid was taking orders from basketball teams at every level, from the NBA to high school.
"I saw it at the equipment managers' meeting and it was like, `Hey, I guess it's not a bad idea,'" said DiPietro. "The next thing you know, almost every guy on the team is wearing it.''
Mike James is one of the few Raptors who doesn't wear the product, but he sees the point: "It's not a chess game out there. You can get seriously hurt."
Eric Williams, the veteran forward isn't so convinced.
"I don't like it. If I'm thinking in my mind that I'm trying to prevent myself from being hurt, I'm already defeated. Everything is mental for me," he said. "Extra protection ain't bad, but for myself, I've already got a big ***. I've already got big enough body parts to protect myself when I'm falling."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ageid=968867503640&col=Columnist1059689060047
Now our boys can crash the boards without fear of getting a charlie horse. Finally, they will be able to "never have any second thoughts about taking it to the hoop wearing the hexpad," just like dwayne wade!____________________
Padding up now all the rage in the NBA
Dec. 14, 2005. 05:17 AM
It is a sport invented more than a century ago by a bespectacled Canadian professor as a genteel gymnasium pastime, but basketball, played properly, hurts. The NBA trenches are treacherous, their denizens ever nursing bruised ribs and welted thighs and charley horses and hip pointers.
So perhaps it's not surprising that NBA players, tired of reaching for painkillers and a bag of ice, have been flocking to don the latest craze in equipment technology: Padded underwear.
Originally designed for British rugby players and popularized in North America by football brutes, the newfangled gear features a protective foam known by the trade name HexPad that is actually built into the form-fitting shorts and tank tops worn beneath uniforms.
It absorbs impact, not sweat. It conforms to the body in ways that previous generations of pads never have.
And so basketball players — who have traditionally played pad-free save for the occasional reliance on volleyball-style knee protection or a sleeve to cushion a wonky elbow — are now taking the court in undershorts buttressed with protection for the thighs, hips and tailbone, not to mention tank tops that dissipate blows to the ribs and spine.
Kevin DiPietro, the Raptors equipment manager who was introduced to the product at the annual meeting of his league-wide counterparts last summer, said more Raptors wear the padding than don't. Chris Bosh is among the converted.
"Before I started using it I had a lot of rib bruises and a lot of bumps and bruises — on my thighs, on my ribs, on my back," said Bosh. "I haven't noticed any bruises (this season), so I guess it works. So it's just a matter of being safe."
Bosh, indeed, has emerged as one of the game's top punishment takers, shooting 8.3 free throws per game this season — good for ninth in the league — up from 6.7 per game last year. Dwayne Wade, the Miami Heat guard who is second in the league in free-throw attempts with 11 per game — trailing Allen Iverson, who shoots 11.9 a night — is the lead spokesperson for the HexPad, which is manufactured by McDavid Sports Medical, a Chicago-area maker of everything from knee braces to jock straps.
"McDavid's protective gear is instrumental in keeping me on the court," Wade is quoted as saying on the company's website http://www.mcdavidusa.com. "I never have any second thoughts about taking it to the hoop wearing the HexPad."
Bob McDavid, who co-founded the company that patented the technology after buying it from a England-based company, said Wade's endorsement carries more weight because he wore the product before he was paid to wear it.
NBA players only came upon the HexPad last season, when Heat trainer Ron Culp was searching for lightweight protection for Shaquille O'Neal, the star centre, who'd been hampered by an injury in the rib area.
Culp got a HexPad shirt from the staff of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, who'd been using the undergarments as supplementary protection beneath football's high-tech shell.
Other Heat players, Wade among them, adopted the technology, not only to protect injuries but to prevent them. And it wasn't long before McDavid was taking orders from basketball teams at every level, from the NBA to high school.
"I saw it at the equipment managers' meeting and it was like, `Hey, I guess it's not a bad idea,'" said DiPietro. "The next thing you know, almost every guy on the team is wearing it.''
Mike James is one of the few Raptors who doesn't wear the product, but he sees the point: "It's not a chess game out there. You can get seriously hurt."
Eric Williams, the veteran forward isn't so convinced.
"I don't like it. If I'm thinking in my mind that I'm trying to prevent myself from being hurt, I'm already defeated. Everything is mental for me," he said. "Extra protection ain't bad, but for myself, I've already got a big ***. I've already got big enough body parts to protect myself when I'm falling."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ageid=968867503640&col=Columnist1059689060047
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ondering a killer punchline::...............................................
