Pain or “Discomfort?”

by Tommy Dee on March 6th, 2009 at 9:01 am

Marc Berman of the Post reminds us today that Danilo Gallinari continues to suffer from the effects of his bulging disk, despite the fact that the rookie looked rather spry in his last outing against the Hawks.

I found this quote from the article rather interesting.

“…Before the Italian Stallion checks into games late in the first quarter, he stays in the tunnel to perform back exercises or to just lie down. He avoids sitting on the bench, which puts pressure on the lower back and can leak disc fluid.

“It doesn’t change much,” Gallinari said of the pain. “It is still there. I feel always the same discomfort for all the games. It’s not changing.”

At 6-foot-11, with a sweet stroke from 3-point range and high basketball IQ, Gallinari may be headed to stardom. That is, if his back does not become a chronic issue or a degenerative condition…”

Pain and discomfort are two different things. 100 percent of the league plays with “discomfort.”  Heck, High School kids fight through discomfort.

His back is nothing to take lightly, however, let’s not worry until it’s a problem. Until then it’s just too many “ifs” and it takes away from the buzz he creates on the court.
  • bmathews77

    Not for nothing but to me it seems like some of the players of today are really fragile prima donna’s. I look back a decade ago in the 90′s and you would see guys like Oakley and Ewing hobbling out on the court to play regardless of whatever injuries they have. I guess back then it was about team work and winning. Now its about who can get the big contract and endorsement deals. I mean some of the excuses teams give for some players is really ridiculous. Look at a guy like Kobe who has had a bad pinky finger since the 2008 NBA finals and he still hasn’t done anything about i.
    In no way am I saying this about Gallinari. Gallinari is a European player who just needs to bulk up this coming off season and get in some strength conditioning. Once he gets past that he will be fine. He didn’t have much time to do much training coming into the season. I expect a much more physical and stronger Gallinari next season.

  • EQ1217

    I compare the Gallo back situation to Jose Reyes hamstring problems. Reyes injur bug did not go away until his body matures and the same thing will happen to Gallo.

    Of course this is all wishful thinking

  • Mucha

    Finally an update, good job by Mr. Berman on that one.

    I disagree with you Tommy, the Knicks (and Knicks fans obviously) have to worry before it is a problem. I really like the fact that he is playing right now but I wouldn’t be concerned about that as I am now if I heard “Gallinari’s resting and he’ll a 100% next season”.

  • DGB09

    Let me tell you something–this is a field of expertise, and Berman doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. First, you don’t leak disk material by sitting on a bench. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Second, if you examine 10,000 people, a certain percentage will have bulging disks, and a certain percentage will have back pain, but there will be no correlation between those who have bulging disks and those that have pain. So you can have a bulging disk and you can have back pain, sciatica, etc., but that doesn’t mean you have pain because of the disk. Gallo isn’t getting the proper treatment right now. There’s a guy at the Rusk Institute in NYC (not me) who is so far ahead of most people in the area of back pain that it’s not even close, and that’s who the Knicks ought to be consulting.

  • Mucha

    I gave Berman props for talking about it – at least we got an update regarding how Gallinari feels. Otherwise I’m not a back specialist (really not) so thanks for your informations.

  • NYKat

    I think this kid has the potential to be a big time player, but the way he injured his back, a routine NBA style hit, and the fact it took him 4 months to even suit up gives me pause about his durability.

    Which gets me thinking, it’s gonna be (excuse the term) painfully hard to get rid of Jared Jeffries, that dude is so fragile he’s got a new injury every couple weeks…