The Achilles Heel of growing old

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At my social old guys basketball game this evening, unfortunately a guy looks to have torn his Achilles Heel. Thinking about the unnatural contour of the tendon I saw up close still makes me a little squeamish.

It was particularly disappointing as the guy joined tonight for the first time. He had hesitated to join, due to worries about potentially repeating a prior injury to his ACL tendon. It was a sorry scene, in shiny brand new shoes he put on for the first time this evening. And quite shockingly, the incident occurred in the first minute on our team’s first attacking play.

At the end of the night, it was a big topic of conversation. One guy on my team felt guilty as it was his pass that was slightly behind the poor guy who had to slow and turn to get it – potentially causing the ominous misstep. I chimed in, it could have also been my fault actually. Me and the injured guy were last to the court and discussed who should go on first, and I encouraged him on.

I joked with one of our organisers, given it’s such a small unofficial association, what’s our public liability cover like – to pay any litigation claims from people injured. He said he didn’t know, then with slight tongue in cheek added, “there’s probably a few guys ahead of him”.

Hope the injury won’t be too serious and he makes a full and speedy recovery.

An update: Scan at hospital confirmed, he’s ruptured his Achilles. Dr Google suggests 6-9 months of recovery. Sad emoji.

Silver acts swiftly, strongly against Sterling « NBA.com | Hang Time Blog with Sekou Smith

Reading Time: < 1 minuteI was astounded to hear the recent news of Donald Sterling – the owner of the LA Clippers NBA team  – making racist remarks against black people. I listened to the recorded phone conversation, hoping it was just a confusion.  It was not.

It’s astounding that it comes from someone with such a long history of involvement in the National Basketball Association – of which it’s players are predominately African Americans.

The only comfort to this episode is that the NBA organisation took swift action in making an example of him.

In this day and age, there is no room for such intolerance.

The healing process may take some time.  At least it’s already off to a great start through such a strong message coming from the governing body.

Silver acts swiftly, strongly against Sterling « NBA.com | Hang Time Blog with Sekou Smith.