File this one under “well that kind of sucks:”
Tayshaun Prince sprained his left ankle in the first quarter of the United States’ game with Brazil on Sunday night in the FIBA Americas tournament.
The 6-foot-9 forward for the Detroit Pistons fell and stayed on the floor after going for a defensive rebound late in the first quarter. He was attended to for about a minute and then helped off the court. He gingerly walked to the locker room and a team spokesman said a decision on his returning to the game would be made at halftime.
I didn’t see it happen, but some of your fellow readers did — here’s joejoejoe’s reaction from the comments in the post below:
I was watching live when it happened. It looked bad enough that you went ‘I hope that’s not serious’. Here’s hoping it’s not serious.
I second that. Hopefully we’ll get a more substantive update soon.
At first glance, it had looked like it was a knee injury which scared the crap out of me.
It looked like it had the possibility of a high ankle sprain, but as long as this is not a serious injury, I think this could actually be better. Tayshaun doesn’t need to be playing in these games and yet Coach K is playing him more than any other guy on the team.
He could use some rest and Team USA does not look like they are in jeopardy of losing a game if Brazil is one of the toughest opponents they will face.
Best case scenario - Tay gets some rest after having proved to Coach K and USA Basketball that he deserves to go to the Olympics. Tay deserves this, as well as an All-Star bid.
Worst case scenario - Tay’s messed up ankle haunts my dreams and the team goes down in flames.
He’s still only averaging 20+min right? I cant take the time to look it up now but I think thats what they said during the game. Thats an ok amount of time to me. He would be playing in scrimmages and such anyways. It seems like Tays leg would have to fall off for him to be injured badly, he manages to shake off these sprains and twists really well for a “fragile” looking dude.
Fel,
he shakes them off so well because he’s whyyyyyyyyerrry (wiry in that accent from The Replacements).
It’s pretty surprising though that one of the guys who people considered on the chopping block is logging more minutes out of anyone on the team?
Is this simply Coach K giving his starters lots of rest during these blowouts or does Coach K have that much confidence in Tay?
Has anyone else noticed that Tayshaun Prince is “long?”
And by “noticed,” I mean: gotten really sick of every media person mentioning the most obvious thing about Tay. I don’t have TV right now so I can’t watch the games, but I’m willing to bet that whoever is calling the games says the “L” word at least once per broadcast when talking about Prince.
during one of the game last week one of the commentators said that Tayshaun was the clue that held the Piston team together. This is really bad if the news is he’ll be out for some games or worst the entire season. I never had an ankle sprain before so I don’t know how long it will takes to heal. Let’s hope nothing happens to Chauncey Billips.
I too thought it was knee from his initial reaction. and the replay sorta looked like ankle and knee both. It wasn’t pretty. Hopefully he gets enough rest and it doesn’t become something re-occuring.
ouch…Surprising actually. Seeing that i have never seen Tayshaun get hurt at ALL the whole time hes been in the Pros…Hopefully its not serious, the Pistons cant afford to loose him…
I thought it was his knee first, but after a few replays and seeing him lying on the ground and the way they handled him, you could tell it was just an ankle tweek. no biggie.
It would have to be a horrendous sprain for him to miss any part of the regular season, and I didn’t get any indication from the wire report that this was the case.
Incidentally, how about the team’s performance? Knocking down nearly 50% of all three-point attempts seems to indicate that this team gets it.
Hieu, no freaking out. You’re freaking out and you need to get a hold of yourself. The injury that Tay sustained was not a season-ending injury. Even within the confines of a sprain, it didn’t look as bad as Chauncey’s a few years back in the playoffs. My guess is he’ll sit out a lot longer than he would if this were the NBA playoffs or even an important part of the NBA regular season.
Just curious, who are the trainers for Team USA? If it is anything but Arnie Kander and Mike Abdenour then I am deeply disappointed in Colangelo’s ability to get the best of the best.
PDXPistonsFan - I’ve watched all the games, and the “l” word wasn’t uttered once, mainly because Hubie Brown isn’t announcing. Instead, Bill Walton has gone on and on about “Basketball IQ.” That term always bugged me - so, take Tay off the court and he’d become an imbecile? He can set a screen, but he can’t do algebra? Dude’s got a degree; he’s got IQ, period.
Rob G - I like that way of putting it, ‘He’s got IQ, period’.
Guys like Joe Dumars, Mike D’Antoni, and Gregg Popovich are all former jocks. Pop was invited to the 1972 Olympic trials as a baller. They just don’t have basketball IQ, they’ve all got IQ, period.
How did Tiago Splitter look?
They better have Kander. Fuck, they better have every single NBA team’s top trainer there to attend to Tayshaun. All 27 (?) of them.
“See, I told him he was too small for the NFL”
Sorry, but I have no better reaction to this news than a Jerry McQuire quote. The fact is I really am glad that Detroit is getting some love with the Olympic comittee but this type of thing just goes to show that it was BETTER when our team got no respect. I love Tay, I think he’s Bruce Bowen with actual talent and thats amazing. I’m glad he and Chauncey are getting a chance to do this…. but ummm damn not at the cost of the prize.
Gold Medals aren’t REAL Championships. Only one team gets to hold the stick with a gold round ball on it per year…. and that’s an NBA team every time.
Sorry to ramble but DAMNIT isn’t this just the kinda bullsh*t we DON’T need trying to make good on that whole “Dynasty” label everyone wanted to give Detroit back in 05?
PistonGirl,
I’m a little confused by your post. Tay sprained his ankle, its not like he lost a leg or something. Like someone already said, he’d be playing in scrimmages somewhere anyway most likely, its not like he’d just be sitting on his couch completely safe from everything.
I’d rather have Detroit’s “negative injury karma” used on a minor off-season injury like this than a serious injury to one of the players during the season or even worse during the playoffs.
How you can completely ignore the allure of playing and winning a gold medal is beyond me. With the way this team is structured, they could have considered grabbing Rasheed as well (lord knows he’d be better in there than Tyson Chandler). The reason the Pistons are no longer the “don’t get no respect” Pistons is because they won a championship. They haven’t been that team since going into the 2004 NBA Finals and this core of players will never be that team again.
DARSHAN:
Splitter’s looking solid and posting great rebounding numbers, especially per minute, if you put any stock into that. He’s scored in double digits in each of four games, even when he played only 15 minutes or so. I couldn’t tell you if these are garbage points or no, but he’s supposedly capable of some perimeter shooting. His free-throw shooting is horrendous in this tournament. His aggressive rebounding is what sticks out to me, and that’s a highly-touted aspect of his game. I’ve heard he may still be growing (where have we heard that before?), but at 21-22 years old, it seems slightly unlikely.
He’s another big-ass Spur who can grab those long rebounds, so get ready to hate.
But maybe not for a couple of years, since the Spurs finally got around to signing their 2005 draft pick, 6′11″ Ian Mahinmi.
Update: Mahinmi put up abysmal numbers in Euroleague, so I don’t think it’d be difficult for Splitter to leap-frog him sooner rather than later.
And I promise to never post twice about Tiago Splitter ever again. Unless, in a few years, we’re all ranting about how we should’ve picked him instead of Afflalo.
I think basketball IQ could more accurately described as timing. Tay has excellent timing for rebounds, is good at anticipating offenses and defenses, and generally makes sound basketball decisions (one of the lowest turnover rates in the game).
Further, he doesn’t panic when he gets in trouble, and doesn’t take bad shots when he gets in trouble. So perhaps you could say it is a combination of timing and demeanor.
Oh, and one rebound for every three minutes from a wing should tell you a little about why he got PT (and the roster spot).
Negative injury kharma is not an actual factor in NBA play. It’s just something us fans like to use to try and explain the completely random nature of some teams having few injuries and some teams getting decimated. Seriously there’s no actual “fair distribution” of injuries amongst teams in the NBA, I swear you can look this up and you’ll find the NBA has no department of “equalizing injuries” as you seem to imply. No really, this may be hard to believe but “sh*t happens” and there’s no grand design to it.
And I can ignore the allure of winning a gold medal because the NBA is a better game than olympic basketball by about a million miles. All I care about are titles baby.
I felt this exact same way last All Star game. I’ve been crossing my fingers and saying “Oh christ just don’t let him get hurt” for two years now every time this nonsense comes up.
I’m not asking Tay or Chauncey to turn down the Olympics (though at least 10 players have opted out of this tournament citing the need to stay healthy for their NBA employers) but you can’t blame me for missing the time when the Pistons were focused completely on winning NBA titles. Why isn’t Tim Duncan playing? Because he’s got his priorities straight.
All-Star Games and Olympic Qualifiers are for guys like Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter…. It just somehow seems un-Piston like to be losing focus on what matters to go play in some crappy bullsh*t basketball exhibition played under house league rules officiated by blind biased foriegners who absolutely hate us.
Let Jason Kidd take home a custom designed gold medal…… Detroit Basketball is about Larry O’Brien’s and nothing more.
Also, I second Kevin’s definition of baksetball IQ. Near as I can tell it’s mostly used to describe players who excell at being in the right place all the time every time and thus generating plays, offensively or defensively. Sort of a combination of “timing and positioning”.
Otoh we are talking Bill Walton here, for all we know that could be code for “I have no clue what’s going on during this game right now and will be paid regardless of what I say here”…
For once, I disagree with PG4L. Billups and Tay have a ring; I’m hoping they get a gold medal, too. These guys could have bad injuries at any point, and their window to achieve things as players is so short, that I don’t hold it against them if they want to win the Olympics. Cheesy as it is, the Olympics still means something to me; I’d be a proud Pistons fan if I saw Chauncey and Tay hold up medals. In addition, I find it surprisingly nice to root for Kobe, LeBron, and Melo. I mean, Kobe (!) is diving for loose balls in blowout games! Melo and LeBron going for steals and getting back on D! This team is playing defense!
So I will disagree, PG4L, but respectfully.
I been watching the FIBA games and as much as I hate to complement a player from a different team, Carmelo Anthony has been pretty impressive against these other teams. Kobe has been good too, but I’m a Kobe hater. Lebron is getting pretty annoying, anytime he makes a shot he does his pretend mean face which makes me kind of laugh at him and shake my head…
Rob, that’s fair enough and I suppose there’s at least a TINY little chance I’ll agree with that outlook once the two of them have gold medals and return with all 4 combined cruciate ligaments intact…
It doesn’t change the fact that even though I only saw a REPLAY of the injury and already knew Prince was “day to day” I couldn’t help but think of Shaun Livingston…..
Also, and I swear do NOT quote me on this ever because I’ll be forced to deny it but yeah…..Kobe has been freaking unbelievable on the defensive end. Who knew he COULD do that aside from maybe his mom? Seriously impressive.
As for rooting for Lebron, I’m kinda with Matt C… I personally find his taunting and weird “faces” a little embarassing. I keep hoping Jason Kidd will pull him aside and explain that he’s representing his country on international TV.
Realistically though I really would prefer these tournaments be played with “real” rules. International basketball is about as close to the NBA game as the And1 Tour is…. maybe less so because slow white 7 foot stickman Euro’s who can periodicially drain three’s don’t have a place in And1 either. It’s just really hard for me personally to care about these games when their played under a set of rules that promotes catch and jump shooting and games in the 60’s…
That having been said, yeah sure who can argue that Tay and Chauncey don’t deserve the right to persue this once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country (though realistically Tay could do another Olympics after that if he’s still really good).
While I do agree with PG4L that the style of play is pretty weak in international ball, the allure of playing for your country is a strong force. In soccer, it’s probably the highest honor for a player to be selected to his national team. Competing for the UEFA Champions League Title or a Premiership Title (club soccer) is on a whole, probably a higher level of competition than the World Cup (national team soccer) as well as a handsomely rewarded gig, but the World Cup is a rare event, unlike league play. Being played once every four years (uh, Olympics much?), it’s generally looked at as the sport’s most prestigious tournament. It’d be nice if international basketball could take steps in that direction.
Often a player will show absolutely no remorse to a club teammate who is his opponent in the World Cup. Can you imagine if Amare committed a “send a message” foul to Barbosa upon him driving the lane? We’d all be shocked. It happens all the time in soccer. And the FIBA Americas is the precursor to the Olympics, where, as the fields get smaller, the disparity in talent narrows (not unlike the World Cup), so perhaps the Americans are trying to take it seriously (especially if they’re worried about getting cut). I say good for them. As Pistons fans, perhaps we’re inclined to only care about the NBA season, but maybe a little (assuming you’re an American Pistons fan) USA spirit isn’t a bad thing. As much as I hate the Lakers, I find it necessary to root for Kobe in international play and I genuinely hope he does well for the American team.
This all being said, I haven’t really watched much of the tournament. I don’t even care about the FIBA Americas as much as I care about the World Cup qualifying rounds. Hopefully by the time the Beijing Olympics roll around I (we American basketball fans as a whole) will have developed a strong interest in this squad and their quest to reclaim dominance. Hopefully it’ll make sense to care as well.
PS: In an attempt to clear up the glut of people who use part or all of their actual names, I feel it’s time for me to change my posting name. After this post I’m going to be switching to LawyerBoy, it’s a name (LONG ago) that was given to me by Rick Mahorn, so it couldn’t be any more appropriate to use than here.
That was a pretty long and rambling post on your way to the Mahorn name-drop, LawyerBoy.
But since it’s the middle of the damn summer, I’ll bite.
Why did Mahorn call you LawyerBoy?
Update: Prince is on the floor tonight vs. Puerto Rico in the FIBA Vegas tourney and moving “effortlessly” per Bill Walton. Hooray!
I came into camp once clearly sporting like three different brands of gear, and he said only a lawyer could argue his way out of that one. Hence the nickname.
However PDX, while I’m rarely one to be succinct, I will say that it’d be nice if basketball fans treated international ball with the same reverence that soccer fans treat their international game.
I was just jawing, LawyerBoy. I’m not exactly concise most of the time. I’m just edgy because there’s no ball going on right now. Yeah, there’s the FIBA tourney, but I’m guessing that soccer is more competitive at whichever stage qualifies teams to make the World Cup. Even if there is a dominant team (as the U.S. has clearly been), it’s got to be more interesting for fans of a sport that is so big internationally.
The NBA is beginning to gain a more extra-American identity, but thus far the huge majority of the players in the L come out of American colleges. Can you imagine an NBA player giving up NBA competition to play in Europe for the purpose of building the sport (as Beckham did with soccer)? I guess if the paycheck was right some would, but there’s not enough of a market for B-ball to generate the money required to get LeBron over to Madrid.
I think the fans don’t take international play as seriously because there is a perception that we have been dominant in the past, and that the only reason we have ever failed to win gold is because we weren’t making an effort. By “an effort” I mean that some of the most talented players have chosen not to compete, and the second tier stars haven’t gelled.
Also,there’s a lot of talk about how the rules affect the style of game, both for basketball and for hockey. Does anyone know if the different soccer leagues have rules that vary from World Cup rules?
Okay, I’ll never be critical of anyone for a long post again. If I do, call me Craig and meet me in the bathroom, cuz I’m a hypocrite.
As far as I know, FIFA (the people who govern soccer) pretty much enforce the same rules all over the world, which makes it very simple to watch any match at any time. In fact, one of my fondest memories is sitting in a bar in Paris and watching some French league game. I didn’t speak a lick of French, and the longest conversation I had with anyone was with some drunk dude on the subway who told me, “Viva la Saddam!” Anyway, I was watching the game, not understand a word, when all of a sudden one player kicked the other in the crotch. Everyone in the room gasped. The language barrier was broken.
That’s way off topic, but my point is, the worldwide standardization of the rules in soccer have made it very easy for fans to understand whatever game they’re watching. Unlike international B-ball.