Whenever Garnett is hurt, it's fair to doubt. But president of basketball operations Danny Ainge maintains that this time is different from back then.
Admit it. You've worried.
You've wondered whether Kevin Garnett's injury is like the one he suffered in 2009, when the Boston Celtics kept telling the world he was just resting for the postseason. Yet Garnett would later say, "They told me when I first got this injury, (full recovery) would take a year."
Jackie MacMullan later described his injury in the Boston Globe as an "onerous bone spur, the size of Garnett’s considerably large thumb." Garnett missed the 2009 playoffs, then essentially took the entire next season to recover. Though he did play, he basically did it while wearing cement shoes, getting victimized by a long list that included Andray Blatche.
So now, whenever Garnett is hurt, it's fair to doubt. But president of basketball operations Danny Ainge maintains that this time is different from back then.
"I don't think that surgery is inevitable or we need to get through the year and he's going to go in for surgery right after the year. That's the difference between (2009) and now," Ainge said Thursday on WEEI.
Ainge said he wasn't sure whether Garnett could play right now if it were Game 7 of the NBA Finals, guessing that Garnett "probably could" despite a persistent limp. (It might be worth it to mention that Ainge told reporters earlier this week: "Could he play tomorrow? Yeah, but we're not playing him tomorrow.")
Ainge said inflammation in Garnett's foot is the biggest concern, but that he also has a sore calf muscle, as well as "little nicks, bumps and bruises that could use some healing time."
In the meantime, yes. Yes, it's okay to worry, at least until Garnett returns to the court.