UPDATE: Smart undergoes surgery, out indefinitely

[RMO]

Is this related to the picture he punched after the LA game or is it just the same hand, different injury?

[celticinorlando]

Is this related to the picture he punched after the LA game or is it just the same hand, different injury?

Different injury. He was grabbed in the Pacers game and pulled his thumb

[hpantazo]

Is this related to the picture he punched after the LA game or is it just the same hand, different injury?

Totally different injury. He dove for a loose ball the other night and fell badly on it. Its too bad because he really looked great in that game, especially his shooting.

[Jiri Welsch]

Probably no updates on the second opinion today?

[Ilikesports17]

Is this related to the picture he punched after the LA game or is it just the same hand, different injury?

Totally different injury. He dove for a loose ball the other night and fell badly on it. Its too bad because he really looked great in that game, especially his shooting.

Hit a couple 3s after the injury.

[csfansince60s]

So good karma next year right?  Right?

I don't know.   We seemed to have crap karma for about 22 years.

(Actually, I think they'll be fine)

 

How about 32 years?

June 1986....the day the music died....Bird, McHale and Parish's careers extended to 1995 if the world doesn't lose LBias and at least 3 more championships and the question of MJ who.

And the Reggie L....ooofff!

Its awfully presumptuous to assume Bias would be THAT good.

I will concede that it may be a BIT presumptuous to assume this about Bias, but not awfully presumptuous.

If Len Bias made it to the NBA, only injuries could've stopped him.

He would've been a super sixth man as a rookie and a chance to be a perennial Allstar and multiple ring-winner subsequently.

This was a young man who had great character. He worked for Red for 3 summers as a counselor in Red's summer camp. I'm a pretty questioning, at times cynical guy, but if you told me that the blow that Bias did that stopped his heart was the first of his life, I'd believe you.

Not only was he a high character guy, he was a fearless, raging competitor. He made players around him better, but also took over games at will, with his fierce will. Heart of a champion, but not strong enough to overcome the arrhythmia caused by the blow.

His 35 point performance against UNC in the DeanDome in '86, giving UNC their first defeat there was performance for the ages, against a team that was superior to his, except for him. This sequence from that game got a lot of airtime, and rightfully so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VD2nx9EIgk

He was a fierce rebounder and shot-blocker who could sky. Very strong, fluid athlete who ran the floor and back-doors with the best of them. He was able to do that because his range was substantial and his shot was silky smooth.

He worked on his game incessantly as all the greats do. His FT% improved from 66% his freshman year to 80% his senior.

And playing alongside the Big 3 would have only made him greater.

Michael Jordan, who?

I know that's hyperbolic and presumptuous, but nowhere near as much as one might think at first blush.

[celticinorlando]

People don't realize how good Bias was. He up there with Jordan.

[csfansince60s]

So good karma next year right?  Right?

I don't know.   We seemed to have crap karma for about 22 years.

(Actually, I think they'll be fine)

How about 32 years?

June 1986....the day the music died....Bird, McHale and Parish's careers extended to 1995 if the world doesn't lose LBias and at least 3 more championships and the question of MJ who.

And then Reggie L....ooofff!

Isn't '86 to '08 twenty two years?  I'd consider a title good fortune.   '09 was frustrating, though.  They were absolutely rolling before KG went down.

TP...of course your numbers are correct.

'07-08 was a tease to me, though appreciated, and what followed was torment.

A 3peat for us with a little normal luck would have been a distinct possibility,....oh well!!!

[Ilikesports17]

People don't realize how good Bias was. He up there with Jordan.

Is this a joke?

I hope this is a joke.

[BudweiserCeltic]

People don't realize how good Bias was. He up there with Jordan.

Is this a joke?

I hope this is a joke.

[PhoSita]

Just saw on Twitter that Marcus Smart is getting a second opinion as to whether he needs surgery on his thumb.

Sounds more than likely that he'll need surgery, as that was the first opinion he got. 

Surgery would sideline him for several months, ending his season.


Greaaaat.

No Theis, no Smart, Kyrie may not be 100% again until he gets his knee scoped.

[Eddie20]

People don't realize how good Bias was. He up there with Jordan.

Is this a joke?

I hope this is a joke.

No, a lot of people think that Bias and Jordan would've been the two primer players during the late 80's and early 90's.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R8qmwgciyB8

[hpantazo]

On the video replay, that thumb sprain didn't look nearly so bad. You have to wonder if the previous hand injury from the broken glass left his hand more vulnerable to this. We will never know I guess.

[Monkhouse]

People don't realize how good Bias was. He up there with Jordan.

Is this a joke?

I hope this is a joke.

Let’s start with the perception of Bias in college… According to the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia, Bias was Bob Gibbons’ 8th-ranked national prospect out of high school, eventually becoming a consensus All-America — and highlight machine — in 1986, his senior year. “He’s maybe the closest thing to Michael Jordan to come out in a long time,” Celtics scout Ed Badger said after watching Bias in six games. “I’m not saying he’s as good as Michael Jordan, but he’s an explosive and exciting kind of player like that.” (Ed.’s note: I guess two years is a “long time”?) Here’s another statement about the pre-draft scouting of Bias:

    “…In scouting reports, it is customary to make player comparisons. Our basic report characterized Bias as a ‘Michael Jordan type who was bigger, with a better jump shot, but who didn’t go to the basket as well.’ “

This is what Sports Illustrated was saying about Bias before the 1986 season:

    “Lefty [Driesell] has always had excellent forwards, and he thinks senior Len Bias, the ’84-85 ACC Player of the Year, is his best ever.”

    […]

    “The only question about the power-forward position is what Bias, the 6’8″, 195-pound gamebreaker who grew up in Landover, just down the street from Cole Field House, will do for an encore. Last season he led the conference in scoring (19.0 points per game), and was an iron man, averaging 36.5 minutes. For a time, though, there was doubt that there would even be an encore. Rumors had Bias jumping to the pros, but he claims he never seriously considered leaving Maryland.”

    “‘I didn’t think I was that good,’ Bias says. ‘I wasn’t ready. My game wasn’t ready. I wanted to stay in school, get it perfected and get my degree.’ Says Driesell, ‘Last year Leonard probably would have been one of the top 10 picks in the draft. This year he could be number one. He didn’t care whether he was one or one hundred. He wanted to stay in school.'”

I think his play was more similar to Jordan, but most pundits and scouts pegged him as a player to have a Worthy-like career, which is still pretty darn good.

[Jiri Welsch]

As much as I love off-topic Len Bias conversation...