Z finished last season playing with ruptured disc

[kblade]

Wonder if anyone in Vancouver saw a 7'2'' bald white guy walk in to a bong shop and come out with a brown paper bag. Look for Z to be even slower this season.

In all serious Z is a soldier for our team, guy has balls and plays tough. At his size and age i actually think relaxing in Vancouver smoking good kind bud this offseason is the perfect treatment.

Hopefully the emergance of the Power Sons (Hickson and Jackson) (we need a good knick name for these two) will take some heat off of Z. AV and Ben can play center and Lance,Power sons, and that other old guy we got I forget his name.

Looking forward to the cavs very much so.

 

[Man Called X]

All the chiropractors I've ever gone to end up being flakey hollistic shamen, asking me if adjusting my neck was making me constipated or helping my vision. Stuff like that which just made it pretty clear that they thought cracking a back was more like fortune telling than physical therapy. Sometimes they helped, sometimes they hurt me, and I don't think they knew what they did differently. The swimming works fine for me right now and it's pretty good cardio too.

Well, I grew up with my dad being a massage therapist for 20 years, and going to the chiropractor since I was like 13. Always seemed to do some help for me, but I guess I've just been lucky in that regard. I've been to a couple quacks that have screwed me up, and those back stretching tables did me nothing but cause pain.

 

[Zen]

Coming from a family of MD's its well known in the medical community that there is absolutely no evidence that having your back "cracked" does anything other than heal via the placebo effect. The cracking noise you hear (same with cracking any joint i.e. knuckles) is simply gas shifting rapidly from chamber to chamber in the joint. The gas moves so quickly that it causes a popping noise, which is why after cracking a knuckle you cant crack it again immediately, you have to wait for the gas to return to the original chamber of the joint.

Chiropractors talk about adjusting or realigning the back via cracking. The funny thing is nothing physically is changing with the joint they cracked. When you first go to a good chiropractor they will take an xray and show you a "subluxation" as they call it. If you want to see a funny reaction, ask them to show you an xray of after they have worked on you, since nothing changes there is never a change in the xray and its often funny watching them explain why it doesn't change.

The main thing to be gained from chiropractors is the fact that they usually accompany the adjustment with muscle therapy such as massage or pulse therapy with heat/cold. If you do feel a benefit it is likely do to that along with the simple mental edge of feeling like they helped you, the mind is a powerful thing.

Z's ruptured disc will always hamper him. A ruptured disc sounds drastic but in all honesty most people alive have a rupture in either their neck or back causing the gel like inside of the disc to leak and place pressure on the nerve. With proper treatment you can ease the flareups and hopefully with luck Z will be able to finish his career on his own terms, not a forced retirement do to back pain.

Zen

 

[Jon]

I read the Wikipedia entry on Chiropractors and it was funny as heck. I realized they didn't have any actual scientific or medical basis for what they do, but I didn't realize that they reject the scientific method as a matter of principle. lol

Of course the guy who started the whole thing used to heal people with magnets ...

 

[Mac]

I can crack the knuckle in the middle of my thumb like 50 times in a row back to back....

 

[Zen]

I think what you are talking to is shifting the joint, many people can shift it where it appears to do a small pop and it jerks out of place and back in... different than "cracking" as people call it. Unless of course you are an alien =)

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

No I think Mac is on to something...

My mom used to give me this glare that would melt a popsicle if I sat around her and kept popping my toes. I can do it non-stop if I choose to.

She started telling me that if I kept doing that, when I got older I wouldnt be able to walk because all my toes would look like Sherman Klumps off the Nutty Professor. So I retired that skilled trade.

In light of this post though, I am glad to say I currently am typing this message in a recliner with my laptop, and cracking away rhythmically and wondering if I can feel air being let out as the Zen master said above.

Hmmmmm???

Oh yeah, btw, I no longer am calling for Andys head on a plate and instead would like to see him help lighten Z's load for the first half of the season substantially...to the tune of 20-25 mins a game to start.

 

[B Mac]

I can crack my right big toe as many times in a row as I want, but only that toe.

 

[Zen]

Since you dont want to believe me here is a medical explanation.. noting primarily what i said in more complex terms.

Joints are the meeting points of two separate bones, held together and in place by connective tissues and ligaments. All of the joints in our bodies are surrounded by synovial fluid, a thick, clear liquid. When you stretch or bend your finger to pop the knuckle, you're causing the bones of the joint to pull apart. As they do, the connective tissue capsule that surrounds the joint is stretched. By stretching this capsule, you increase its volume. And as we know from chemistry class, with an increase in volume comes a decrease in pressure. So as the pressure of the synovial fluid drops, gases dissolved in the fluid become less soluble, forming bubbles through a process called cavitation. When the joint is stretched far enough, the pressure in the capsule drops so low that these bubbles burst, producing the pop that we associate with knuckle cracking.

It takes about 25 to 30 minutes for the gas to redissolve into the joint fluid. During this period of time, your knuckles won't crack. Once the gas is redissolved, cavitation is once again possible, and you can start popping your knuckles again.

---

what you guys are talking about with your thumb and toes is most likely a minor dislocation of the joint which some people mistake as a "pop" its however much different than what happens when you crack your knuckles, or when a chiropractor cracks your back.

Zen

 

[Radar]

OT ?:btw,when is Z going to retire a cavs in 09 or 10?

 

[Randolphkeys]

Well, I grew up with my dad being a massage therapist for 20 years, and going to the chiropractor since I was like 13. Always seemed to do some help for me, but I guess I've just been lucky in that regard. I've been to a couple quacks that have screwed me up, and those back stretching tables did me nothing but cause pain.

You also smoke mad weed. Perhaps that has something to do with feeling way awesome.

 

[Man Called X]

You also smoke mad weed. Perhaps that has something to do with feeling way awesome.

Not quite, I mean, yes, I get hella high, but that's not why I feel good after an adjustment. I've seen xrays before and after an adjustment, and yes, I have seen significant difference. L4 tends to shift on me a lot, and yes, after an xray, it looks to be in a much more comfortable position. Of course the muscles are relaxed, thus allowing the vertebrae to slide back into place where it should be.

I'm not saying all chiropractors are good, or even work. But from my own experiences, they have done me some help over the years. I've went to plenty of massage therapists that haven't done me any good. That still isn't going to convince me that a proper massage isn't going to have a beneficial effect for me.

 

[rabman_gold]

I wonder if it's humanly possible for our man Z to play a tad bit longer than even 2010? It may not even be an option, but what if Z's still just as effective as 2008? What if he's still capable of putting up 14 and 9 this year? If he can do that effectively now, then he may pick up the option for next year, hoping he can win a ring in the process? Maybe he'll do 12 and 7 again? Another year to go ring-hunting? What if he's only losing a LITTLE effectiveness?

Reason I'm asking is that he has a bad problem with feet and back, but these medical exercises and machines they're using now may allow him to play comfortably enough to want to play a little longer, even if it just prolongs his career to 2 years instead of 1.

I just look back to every NBA center who continued to play beyond their prime.

In the most recent example, Dikembe is capable (at least to the best of my knowledge) of putting up halfway decent numbers into 41 and 42. He's still 3 to 4 years away from making history, but he can clearly put up 4 points and 8 rebounds if he wanted to. That is probably his best ability at this point (and he's able to happily put that up because he's just a backup at this point), since he wasn't a big stats guy to begin with (only 10 points and 14 rebounds in his prime).

In Hakeem's and Patrick's example, they were known 20-10 players that did that every single year of their careers. And way past their primes too (In '96-'98, they weren't as healthy, but still dangerous low post scoring threats at ages of 36-38). In 2001, they both had less than 8 points and 3 rebounds, which told them "Geez! That's it?! I can't do this anymore!" Those stats were appropriate comparisons to call it quits.

And what about Kareem and Rob Parish? They went into their 20th and 21st seasons, yet despite the last couple of years left in the tank were still capable in limited exposure. Rob was only good for 4 and 2, but Kareem was so damn good that he could get 10 and 5 in only 20 minutes!

I think Z's career has no chance of getting into the 36-38 years like Ewing and Olajuwon, but he can still pull for around 34. But I wish he had great luck, because those injuries will act up in a short time. Hopefully, he can still feel good to try to put up with them beyond 2010. He'll probably retire if he can't deal with it or he starts deteriorating too much (only 3-6 points and 2 rebounds...).

Now you all at least have an idea of what Z's time span is... The fact that he's taller than most means he has a better chance of being more effective longer... Despite the ruptured disc and same old feet. He just won't be as fortunate as Mutombo, maybe even Kevin Willis (who already expired despite playing 21 seasons as well)...

 

[BlueFalcon189]

Z is unreal. that guy bounced back from all of those foot injuries and played his heart out for years. he really kind of mssed his "prime" and just spread it out over a few consistent years. he really should have a big fat poster in all of the soft atheltes (beanie wells) lockers.

 

[PIP]

I wonder if it's humanly possible for our man Z to play a tad bit longer than even 2010?

No, no, no... Lets not push the limits here.. As much as I would love to see this become a reality, I think it's probably best for Z if he called it quits after 2010...We have no idea how it could effect his physical health down the road, and we certainly want Z walking after his career, even if that gets in the way of our selfish thoughts of wanting him to continue on after 2010..

So, let him play until 2010, and we'll send the big fella off into the sunset... Hopefully with a championship...

Lets think about his health and well being here, people...