Anthony Edwards' Knee Injury Raises NBA Fitness Concerns

Anthony Edwards, that's the biggest one for me because I truly believed that when, like you said, when OKC had all these injury issues, and listen, San Antonio hasn't looked good, although I feel like they're going to be better, that it was Ant's MVP season. He had 47 one night. He was putting up monster numbers. That Minnesota offense was insane. They were beating these teams by 20-30 with LaMelo. And then he has this... Knee issue that I'm kind of concerned about at this point, guys, because he had the bone bruise and the hyperextension in the left knee in the playoffs, but he also dealt with a lot of this runner's knee last year in that same knee. He was limping around to start the season, and they made the decision like, hey, we're probably still going to be a very good team when you come back, even if it's a couple months or maybe a little bit longer. If we have you fully healthy for that stretch run, we still believe in this team to go on a title run. And I think that's where they're at right now. They saw how good that this team can be. But also, these lingering knee issues just concern me. John, what are your thoughts on Anthony Edwards in this? It's weird because they won't give a designation. It's not like meniscus. It's not cartilage. It's soreness and discomfort. Because they probably don't know. I think they do know. They just don't want to say it. I hope it's not microfracture, first of all. I love your life. Let's dive into that. Had surgery on Wednesday or Thursday, by the way, so the surgery's done. So let me say this. That was fun for a week, right? Right? We had a great week at the NBA. See you next year. So to me, I think all this can be traced back to a lot of these guys not physically being ready to start this season. I think some of these soft, the J-Dub situation, I think that's a freak accident. That's a Paul George level, nobody saw that coming type thing. But these soft tissue injuries, the fact that Tyrese Halliburton is out again, the fact that we see this situation with Ant not properly being evaluated to start the season and they let him go out there and go full speed. I ask the question of what were these guys doing in the offseason to get their bodies ready? We all know that the NBA is playing more possessions than probably it ever has. And for these guys to not keep their body in shape all year round, and then you try to ramp it up at camp. But we know a lot of these guys aren't going 100% at camp. But then you get in the NBA game, and you're going 100 miles an hour on your body. You're revving the Lamborghini all the way to the red line. And you're getting these injuries. And it's the high-profile players that are getting these injuries because on the court, those are the guys people are going at the hardest. And so I think that a lot of these injuries that we're seeing has to have a correlation to guys not preparing themselves in the offseason physically for the taxing that they're going to go into during the season. John, I talked to a former NBA player at a Clipper game, and he said exactly what you just said. That was his exact words that these guys in the summer are not prepping their bodies enough. He was saying like, we used to do two a days every day. Like these guys are going in for a workout and maybe they'll get another workout in, but it's not as hard each and every day and going into camp, going into preseason. They're using camp and preseason as their summer. I'm using that as the conditioning work and the five on fives and the contact. And that's where he thought it was an issue. Yeah, I'll tell you this, you know, like if I were even to compare this as far as what preparation is in the world of professional wrestling, because people work their bodies to build up a tolerance. So like some person who hadn't performed in such a long period of time get injured right away. The guys who never take the time off and are wrestling every week for who knows how long, no matter what, they're still in the motions. They're still moving their bodies. they're still being physically active? Those are the ones that have the longevity, and it's the same exact thing in every major sport. It's in football as well. All these, you know, ACL tears and things like that because in the offseason, they're resting. They're not doing the extra drills. They're not staying active when they need to remain active because, hey, you are a professional athlete. You need to be active in order to stay healthy because that's what your muscles are used to.