So you don't think the Suns doctors thought of that also when they were most certainly being consulted about resigning him?
People fail to factor that although Sarver makes the ultimate decision, there are a lot of people determining what the best course of action is.
So you don't think the Suns doctors thought of that also when they were most certainly being consulted about resigning him?
People fail to factor that although Sarver makes the ultimate decision, there are a lot of people determining what the best course of action is.
You're right about this. But does this vindicate Sarver in any way? Some people seem to think that Sarver has an ego problem, that he is a self-perceived know-it-all who in fact knows very little. But, what is better: a) a person who knows very little yet thinks he knows a lot (and hence dismisses the advice of others as unnecessary or incorrect), or b) a person who knows very little, understands his own intellectual shortcomings, and then seeks advice from others who may or may not be qualified to be doling out such advice?
I can't think of a good reason to ask the Suns medical team about the short-term or long-term recovery process from microfracture surgery. Let's look at the two prominent microfracture cases in Suns history: 1) Penny Hardaway - after the surgery, the doctors said they decided to perform the procedure rather than do another scope on his knee because they believed the surgery would prolong his career. There is no way to know what would have happened had the doctors done what they initially planned (athroscopic surgery), but if you look at Penny's performance on the injured knee during the Spurs and Lakers serieses compared to his performance when he finally started playing again in 01-02, it seems like it was more of a career-ender than lengthener. Additionally, the timetable for Penny's return after he had the surgery was 4-6 weeks. That's the kind of timeline that pressures you into pushing yourself through pain that you shouldn't be pushing through. But when the doctors look at an MRI and say "you're perfectly healthy," you push through it. Then you finally return in January, play four games, and are forced to shut it down for the reat of the season.
But, hey, this was their first microfracture surgery on a professional athlete, so maybe they get a free pass on Penny. Let's move to number 2) Amar'e. His estimated recovery time, although not as rediculouos as Penny's, was wrong. They talked about a December-January return. And when Amar'e's rehab time seemed to be progressing right on schedule. Sure, he was in pain, but the doctors did their MRI's and were able to confirm that his knee was progressing the way they thought it would. Rehab can sometimes be painful, but the scans of his surgically repaired knee showed that the pain he was doing to his knee was a necessary part of the rehabilitation process - really, it was more like "soreness" and "stiffness" than pain, if he really was as healed as the doctors thought. So, based on the Suns' doctors' medical opinions, he pushed through it. And instead of a speedy recovery, the result was another knee injury, this time to his previously-healthy knee. He still made it back by January though, and he managed to put up 20 points in one half of a game against the Blazers. A couple games after, and he was out for the rest of the season.
I think it's safe to say that the Suns doctors don't know anything about post-op microfracture timetables. So if Sarver is letting their advice sway his decision-making, he still sucks.
