NBA-You thought Wade's injury was bad...

)85(

I was online a few days ago and the TV was on ESPN and the guy said "if you sqeemish, turn away"....or something like that. Shawn Livningston was going for a layup he landed and his body was flying right and one of his knees couldn't handle the pressure. it folded the same way his body was flying. the next few days a few guys were talking about it and saying Livingston was starting to be the kind of player the team was hopeing he was. he might never be the same. it's not the first time he dislocated his knee cap. i think his contract ends this summer, i'm not sure though.

Freak

I read a pretty good (albeit totally confusing) article on Yahoo! about Livingston, and how he's an example of why high-school players should be allowed to enter the draft. He came straight out of high school, and the article explained all the injuries he's had since his career began, how his body was never built to last -- and how this injury, where his knee simply collapsed on its down, was the ultimate proof.

It got confusing because that would normally seem like a reason not to allow such young players in the NBA, but the piece argued that the same injuries would have happened in college, and he would never have made the millions of dollars for his family, both through his NBA contract and endorsements with Reebok (6 million). After all, it said, he can still go to college now and get his degree; it wouldn't have been the same, the other way around.

Dr. Giganto

So, we should allow frail 18-year olds to enter the league so that if they suffer a terrible injury, they make millions of dollars for little to no production, and the team's salary cap takes a gigantic hit?

Makes perfect sense to me.

If he's too frail and injury prone to be a legitimate NBA player, that's EXACTLY why he should be forced to play in college. So that we can find out whether ot not he can play before he gets to the league, and then the money that he would be paid would go to players that actually deserve it.

CrasH - X

Remember the Spyda, dude ..

Dr. Giganto

Gerald Green didn't go to college...

But my point is, that if a guy is "injury prone", you're more likely to find that out when he's in college, and that could save a team a lot of money by not drafting him, or drafting him lower. And that money could then go to another player who will actually produce and contribute.

Obviously, there will be guys who are healthy throughout college and get injured in the pros. But Livingston has already had two major knee injuries, during the years that he would have been in college.

Because of the injury risk, it makes sense for a player to go pro right out of high school, but it's not what's best for the league.