Column: Athletes should be cautious with injuries

Therefore, the brutal injury comes as a surprise in basketball. We expect to see players carted off the football field after receiving devastatingly powerful hits and pitchers sustain elbow injuries that render them ineffective for the rest of their career. Basketball, however, is not a sport in which we expect to see career-ending injuries.

Those who spent Saturday night watching the Boston Celtics vie for their first win of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the vaunted Miami Heat might have been surprised. Admittedly, the Celtics had played the first two games of the series at the American Airlines Arena in Miami and lost both — the Celtics went 23-18 on the road during the regular season — yet those who watched the games observed a superior effort by the Heat’s trio of stars, whereas the Celtics’ starting cast had disappointed.

Prior to the start of the series, many columnists pegged the Celtics’ starting point guard Rajon Rondo as the key to the series; his play, in the minds of numerous writers, would dictate whether or not Boston would advance to likely face the Chicago Bulls in the penultimate round of the NBA playoffs.

In the middle of the third quarter in Saturday night’s matchup, Heat star Dwyane Wade and Rondo became entangled and tripped; Wade was fine, but Rondo braced himself with his left arm and, gruesomely, dislocated his left elbow. Rondo was promptly helped off the floor and sent directly to the locker room for medical attention.

At the time, no one believed Rondo would re-enter the game; Boston writer Jackie MacMullan called Rondo’s elbow ailment a “seemingly season-ending elbow injury.” Contrary to everyone’s expectations, Rondo returned late in the third quarter, his left arm bandaged heavily. At the end of the night, Boston emerged from the TD Garden with its first victory.

Rondo played admirably, grabbing rebounds, passing and even stealing the ball and dunking with one hand. Yet Rondo’s return to the game was highly imprudent and, unfortunately, indicative of behavior that is commonplace in professional sports.

Undoubtedly Rondo’s play was instrumental in the team’s success; however, jeopardizing his career for the sake of a single playoff game was an act of irresponsible management by the front office. During the fourth quarter, Rondo collided with another player and fell to the ground; luckily he turned so that he landed on his shoulder, as opposed to his elbow. Yet the team risked Rondo’s health when they put him back in to close out the game.

Management and medical officers often make decisions to put injured players back into action too soon. In 2002, New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick pressured linebacker Ted Johnson to practice in full-contact drills three days after suffering a concussion in an exhibition game against the New York Giants; Johnson stated that he endured another concussion during those drills. Ted Johnson currently suffers from depression and headaches due to post-concussion syndrome; The New York Times reported that Johnson has early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

I do not believe professional athletes should be barred from play for weeks on end if they sustain minor injuries. I do, however, think that a team’s management wants to protect its assets and that athletes want to compete for as long as they can in the long run. The current trend of medical allowances in sports is worrisome. I can only hope the medical staff of the Boston Celtics does their due diligence before the fourth game of the series on Monday night.