Kyrie out 4 weeks with hairline fracture of left index finger

[ArchieBunker7]

A higher propensity to get injured makes you injury prone. Doesn't matter what the injuries are. The fact he can smack a wall with his hand, break it, and then be excused from practicing D says a lot to me. About him, his coach, and the organization as a whole. Yes, freak injuries happen. Yes, it's great it's not some reoccuring knee problem. 4 injuries that have sidelined him for some sort of siginificant time in 3 years. That's not good. He's not out there in a cage punching people in their heads for a living. He's playing basketball.

This is a trend. Projecting the next month's worth of games, Kyrie will have played in 72 games since his frosh year at Duke. In that same period, he will have missed 73.

[Dave K]

Adding weight whether it is muscle or not doesn't prevent injuries. Adding muscle to your upper body, while doing nothing for your lower body will actually increase your chance for injury because it puts increased pressure on your knees and ankles.

Not that I think he doesn't work out his legs, but if he only concentrates on upper body then it's not a good thing.

that story behind that picture turned out to be that the dude was in the military and was wheelchair bound for a couple years. dont feel like a dick or anything

[SRStark20]

I think you're all being a bit too dramatic over this injury. Something tells me that if this was going down the stretch in March, and we were currently the five or six seed, he'd be playing. I still don't think he's injury prone.

However, if he comes back and gets hurt again this season, then perhaps we should worry a bit.

[Fuggles]

A higher propensity to get injured makes you injury prone. Doesn't matter what the injuries are. The fact he can smack a wall with his hand, break it, and then be excused from practicing D says a lot to me. About him, his coach, and the organization as a whole. Yes, freak injuries happen. Yes, it's great it's not some reoccuring knee problem. 4 injuries that have sidelined him for some sort of siginificant time in 3 years. That's not good. He's not out there in a cage punching people in their heads for a living. He's playing basketball.

This is a trend. Projecting the next month's worth of games, Kyrie will have played in 72 games since his frosh year at Duke. In that same period, he will have missed 73.

"injury prone" is a subjective term made up by fans

understanding things like causality and biology are super duper hard while magical thinking is incredibly easy

[ArchieBunker7]

"injury prone" is a subjective term made up by fans

understanding things like causality and biology are super duper hard while magical thinking is incredibly easy

No, it's really not magical at all. Subjective? Maybe.

It's not made up by fans, though, I can assure you of that. Those words have been used by scouts for years, in all sports. If a guy gets injured more than the average player does(and make no mistake, missing half your games over a 3 year period is more than average), he gets tagged. The opposite is also true. If a guy hardly ever gets hurt, he is called durable. Is that subjective, or made up?

Some guys just always seem to come up with injuries, and some guys never seem to get injured. And when I use the term "injury" in this context I am saying it as a term to mean something that keeps the player from playing in games. Of course people get hurt all the time in sports. It's part of it.

The causality part of injuries usually isn't all that difficult to determine. A guy gets hit, twists something, punches something, etc. and he gets hurt. It's usually a pretty identifiable thing. The biology part of it is obviously much more difficult to put a finger on. But, there's no denying people are just built different(and I'm not even talking about how much muscle they have). Do you have any doubt that if you lined up 10 human beings in a line and hit them all in the exact same place with the exact same force, there would be varying degrees of injury? And it's not just pain tolerance. I'm talking varying degrees of bruising, breaking, tearing, etc.

[Mdog1]

that story behind that picture turned out to be that the dude was in the military and was wheelchair bound for a couple years. dont feel like a dick or anything

Some might say poor taste, I say the perfect picture for this situation.

[blue_kahuna]

This injury means Dion will get more playing time and see if he can be "the man" out there. I expect Dion to fully embrace the alpha dog in him even though it might get bumpy at times.

[Biw]

Adding weight whether it is muscle or not doesn't prevent injuries. Adding muscle to your upper body, while doing nothing for your lower body will actually increase your chance for injury because it puts increased pressure on your knees and ankles.

Not that I think he doesn't work out his legs, but if he only concentrates on upper body then it's not a good thing.

Added weight may put more stress on joints and what not but how can adding more muscle not provide more protection from bumps and falls? You're essentially just adding more padding between your bones and whatever you make contact with. It wouldn't have helped with his finger but with the way Kyrie attacks the basket, I wouldn't mind him adding some muscle.

And being a professional athlete and all, I think Kyrie would know to work his legs as well...

[Mdog1]

Added weight may put more stress on joints and what not but how can adding more muscle not provide more protection from bumps and falls? You're essentially just adding more padding between your bones and whatever you make contact with. It wouldn't have helped with his finger but with the way Kyrie attacks the basket, I wouldn't mind him adding some muscle.

And being a professional athlete and all, I think Kyrie would know to work his legs as well...

I'm pretty sure he would work his legs too, but if he didn't then adding weight to his upper body, without adding strength to his legs would put his legs at a higher risk for injury. You see it all the time with people who have a little person complex, and only work out their upper bodies. They get big arms, chest, and shoulders, but then play a game of basketball and blow out a knee because their tendons, ligaments, and joints are not used to the added weight. There is such thing as adding too much muscle too fast.

It's like when someone takes steroids. The gains are massive, but until your body is used to the increase in weight (bearing), and the amount of weight you can lift tendons are sore, and it puts stress on your joints.

I'm not saying Kyrie shouldn't work out obviously. Just that he should slowly add the muscle to his body, and keep it proportioned to reduce the risk of lower body injury.

My overall point is, and I doubt it would apply to Kyrie, don't ignore your biggest muscle group guys. It's cool to have 17 inch arms, but it's even cooler to be able to play a game of basketball without blowing a knee...

[ArchieBunker7]

And none of this added muscle talk has one thing to do with the majority of KI's injuries.

[bob2the2nd]

"injury prone" is a subjective term made up by fans

understanding things like causality and biology are super duper hard while magical thinking is incredibly easy

the actual term maybe made up, but regardless of what you call it some bodies just are prone to getting injured. Case in point I have a friend that when she was 13-16 was in line to be one of the top female soccer goal tenders in the country. She tore her ACL 3 times in that time (well actually it was over 5 years), and through everything doctors have diagnosed/observed/whatever her with an unusual gap distance in her knee, which puts extra stress on her knee ligaments. So basically you can throw causality out the window and basically, yes 'injury prone' does happen.

that said i have no idea the biology of KI but he has now broken 2 bones in a year (both in his hand), and sustained other serious injuries seems to indicate he may just have some sort of physical biological impairment

[JiggleIt]

That girl is injury prone like bob is friend-zone prone.

[Maximus]

Kyrie does need to get more commited in the weight room. He's a very naturally gifted kid, the game has always come so easy to him. He shows up at camps a little out of shape and he's still destroying players that have been there for weeks and are in the best shape of their lives. There was never any need in Kyrie's mind to spend too much time in the weightroom in highshool and college...he thought time was better spent on the court. Now that he's playing in the NBA, it has to be a priority. I think it's a little more immaturity than laziness...he's only 20. But, he does need to make a bigger commitment to weight training, stretching and working with trainers during his free-time. Weight training will increase his bone density and decrease the chance of injuries in the future.

[CardiacCavs]

How many injuries can Kyrie have before we stick the label of "injury prone" on him. I'm not willing to say it now, but if these kinds of injuries continue to occur...


If Dion can play well and actually get this team some wins, I would expect him to get some exposure and recognition on ROY rankings. It would be nice to have someone capable of actually running an offense though...

[Lottery God]

Kyrie does need to get more commited in the weight room. He's a very naturally gifted kid, the game has always come so easy to him. He shows up at camps a little out of shape and he's still destroying players that have been there for weeks and are in the best shape of their lives. There was never any need in Kyrie's mind to spend too much time in the weightroom in highshool and college...he thought time was better spent on the court. Now that he's playing in the NBA, it has to be a priority. I think it's a little more immaturity than laziness...he's only 20. But, he does need to make a bigger commitment to weight training, stretching and working with trainers during his free-time. Weight training will increase his bone density and decrease the chance of injuries in the future.

I'll back that up. Weight training has shown to improve bone density beyond what normal daily living provides. Weight training also strengthens tendons and ligaments so that sudden pressure on them will less easily strain them. Added muscle from weight training also adds as a structural support for bones just like bones add structural support for the muscles.

Also, MDog, there's no way in hell that any professional athlete that is worth their salt is skipping leg training. I'm positive that no NBA player is skipping leg training including Kyrie. Only weekend warriors and frat boys skip leg day.