Let Us Pray That This Supposed Foot Injury To Kristaps Porzingis Is Just A Way To Get Him Out Of Playing In The FIBA World Cup
With the FIBA World Cup only a few weeks away, there is obviously a decent amount of nervousness amongst Celts fans when it comes to their prized offseason addition Kristaps Porzingis deciding to participate. Having lived through Danilo Gallinari tearing his ACL in last year's EuroBasket tournament, you can understand the concern. We've already seen NBA rotation players get hurt and the tournament hasn't even started yet, and hell even fellow Celtic Oshae Brissett has already been forced to not play for Team Canada because of some sort of mystery knee injury
While this stinks, Brissett is slotted to be a depth piece. When it comes to Porzingis, it's an entirely different story. So you can imagine my reaction upon seeing this tweet
I'm sorry, excuse me? Now I have no idea who this person is or how credible this report is, but it absolutely was enough to send a shiver down my spine. I cannot do this again after going through the Gallo ACL tear last summer. The only real concern when it comes to Porzingis and this offseason trade was health. If he's not healthy, it's a bit of a disaster. While I'd never expect someone to sit out of the FIBA World Cup if they were healthy, I'm going to have to ask Porzingis to shut it the hell down, even if he's feeling 99.999%. He's too important. The season is too important.
I dunno about anyone else, but I was already nervous as shit when it comes to the injury risk of Porzingis. If this report is to be believed and we're already dealing with a foot injury issue in early August?
As I scramble my brain for any sort of spinzone, maybe this is just a way for the Celts to get Porzingis out of playing? I haven't seen any sort of confirmation of this supposed injury but I don't even really need it. The potential of it being real is scary enough.
To make things even more interesting, KP put out this video on his IG today, but are we sure it's current? His tshirt/shorts/wrap look exactly like what he posted in mid July, so maybe it's an old video? If not, if this is really from today then yeah, we can collectively exhale.
The fact of the matter is this is already something Celts fans are going to have to worry about every single night once October rolls around, and I have to admit I did not expect to already be worrying about it in early August. When you start talking about foot injuries and 7fters, it's terrifying. That shit can linger. It's why my view of this offseason has been pretty simple.
The Celts may have ultimately raised their ceiling with the Porzingis/Smart trade, but they also lowered their floor in the event shit like this happens. While they may have gotten better in some areas, they created new questions in others that didn't exist before. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some praying to do.