Hurting Ourselves

As mentioned previously, the '09-'10 Golden State Warriors may be remembered most for their health woes. The franchise certainly hopes that'll be the case; if you're not yet sick of Bob Fitzgerald mentioning how many total games the team has lost to injury, you will be soon. And you can indeed chalk up many of our injuries -- Wright's, Azubuike's, Randolph's -- to simple bad luck.

But not all injuries are created equal. Bad luck has only dug us three feet into this grave; we've dug the last three ourselves.

First, remember the inherent padding in that "games lost to injury" statistic. We've dedicated one roster spot to Raja Bell, a player who told us he needed surgery when we traded for him. We've dedicated one roster spot to Devean George, a player whose potential contributions we have pretty transparently not cared about one way or the other. And we've dedicated one roster spot to Speedy Claxton, who we've actively hoped would be unable to play, so insurance would cover the majority of his contract. In total, we've forsaken three roster spots -- 20% of our usual player space -- in the name of compiling expiring deals. That's not an indefensible decision for a rebuilding team, but let's be clear: it's a decision. The Warriors should not pretend to be surprised that Speedy, Bell and George have only played in six out of a possible 97 games; this was, more or less, the plan. And when your plan involves a maximum of twelve available players, you're inevitably going to find yourself shorthanded for stretches at a time.

But this roster math is not the only way in which we've hurt ourselves, nor the most pernicious. We have, to put it simply, not been taking good care of some of our players. Want an example? Let's take a look at the season of Ronny Turiaf.

• Ronny tweaked his left knee on October 30th, in the second game of the year. This injury did not completely come out of nowhere, as he'd missed most of the preseason due to torn cartilage in that knee... however, there's no real reason to think that the Warriors were negligent in playing him, as he looked more or less ready to go, and most NBA players are at least a little banged-up, even at the start of a season. A November 2nd MRI revealed a sprain. Ronny's status was listed as day-to-day, and remained that way for weeks; he returned to practice on November 27th, and played the next night in the blowout loss to the Lakers.

• In the Warriors' next game, the November 30th home win over the Pacers, Ronny re-aggravated his knee injury; he limped off the court in the third quarter and did not return. He then missed the next twelve games. Again, no evidence of negligence by the Warriors here. The guy had gotten hurt, he missed a good amount of time, he came back, he got hurt again. It's obviously not ideal, but it's possible that this was simply bad luck.

• Ronny re-returned to the lineup the day after Christmas, in the barnburner against Phoenix. Over the next four games, it became clear that he was still having a significant amount of trouble with the knee, as he was visibly limping and not elevating well. (A troubling sign: Ronny has taken thirteen jump shots this season, and missed twelve of them.) Ronny was also clearly not yet in game shape in terms of cardio. Nellie admitted as much, saying, "He's tired a lot. But he's such a factor that I've had to play him too many minutes for just coming back." It was obvious that Ronny should not be playing, no matter how much we could profit from his presence.

• And so, on January 4th, Nellie announced that the team had devised a plan to keep Ronny healthy: they were going to... start him?! "We think with his knee problems it's better to start him now and have it warm at least twice during the game." Ronny's take: "I do have to watch my knee because the more I get tired, the more fatigue and the more cold I get, the more pain I feel in my knee... that's a reality. I try to hide it from a lot of people. So there's a reason (I'm starting). It's not for the fun of it."

Let's be perfectly clear about something: this decision was absurd. Ronny's knee had been in genuinely bad shape for over two months... it was a chronic problem. When an injury's posing that much of an issue, you don't solve it by "keeping it warm", or letting the guy know exactly when he'll be expected to hobble. You sit... the guy... down. The Warriors disagreed.

• In the one-point loss to Denver last week, Ronny came down awkwardly on his right ankle, spraining it. Again: spraining it. And if you think that couldn't possibly be related to his injured left knee, think again... there's no easier way to injure a leg than by overcompensating for your other one. At this point, you'd think Nellie would tell the poor guy to stay off the floor for a couple days, right? Wrong: this 9-23 team put Turiaf, bad knee, bad ankle and all, back on the floor in the very next quarter. (We lost the game anyway, of course.)

• The next night, we flew to Minnesota, to play the league's second-worst team. Now 9-24, we were the league's third-worst team. It'd be hard to think of an easier decision than giving Ronny that night off. He had injuries in both of his legs, we had Biedrins, Randolph, Hunter and Radmanovic available to cover the frontcourt in his absence, and in a season that was already woefully lost, it didn't make a damn bit of difference if we won the game or not, anyway. Ronny played 24 minutes, and was in obvious agony throughout.

• Back home on Friday against Sacramento, Ronny, still limping, still in pain, played 29 more minutes... and hurt his knee again. Did Nellie bench him as a result? Marcus Thompson's Twitter had the call:

• And finally, last night's game against Cleveland -- Marcus Thompson's Twitter:

To recap: Ronny had been playing hurt for weeks, with an injury he'd had for months. Six days previous to last night's game, he'd sprained his right ankle, giving him significant issues in both of his legs. He'd since re-aggravated the knee injury, and last night, he re-sprained the ankle. And the Warriors' initial response: "Let's re-tape that bad boy and get you back there!" Their first instinct was to get him back on the floor. It was only when they recognized the severity of this sprain that sanity finally, mercifully, prevailed. Ronny went unmentioned in Nellie's post-game interview.

The Warriors' handling of Ronny Turiaf has been, to put it simply, an outrage. Like many players, he wants to play basketball, no matter how hurt he is. It is sometimes a team's responsibility -- a coach's responsibility, a trainer's responsibility, a GM's responsibility -- to protect guys like that from themselves. Don Nelson, Tom Abdenour, and Larry Riley have completely failed to protect Ronny Turiaf. They could have relied on other players more; they could have acquired a big body or two to cover for him; they could have simply decided that his health was too important to risk, and lost some games a hobbled Ronny might help them win. They chose none of those options. In a lost season, they have pushed him again and again, re-injuring him further and in new ways. It's unprofessional. It's indefensible.

So if you ever hear Nellie or Fitz or any other Warrior employee wallow in self-pity over Ronny's current absence, there is only one appropriate response: "shame on you." It's one thing to hide behind injuries as an excuse; it's quite another to do so while you're willfully hurting one of your players.