report from the Arlington Gazette weekend edition: the basketball week in reviewBoston. In a series of completely unrelated incidents more than a dozen basketball players from the SSBA league were injured.
The whole mess started with Kenneth Rivera from the SLS Jazz pulling his groin on the first day of play action and missing the complete sim. But it didn't stop here. The Mavs got a big blow to their title run when Emeka Okafor fractured hi hip in a nasty fall while plaing in Sacramento. X-rays were negative but the medical staff believes he might miss up to 26 days of action.
On the second day, former league MVP Yao Ming declared himself unavailable for the next 9 days, a time span running past the upcoming All Star weekend. Sonics management was utterly disappointed after already promoting him for their first All Star appearance in a long time.
The following day, superb shooter Charlie Phelps from the Trailblazers left the team to get treatment for severe depression, right after his dog "Cherio" had died when it was hit by a frisbee disk. He might be available after the All Star weekend but a league source confirmed that it was possible he would miss the rest of the season. They were REALLY close.
For the next two days all games ended without further casualties, but it was made public that SSBA head coach Alex Rinehart slipped on a wet spot in the Clippers practice facility a few days earlier and might miss the team's next 3 games.
On day 56 the Pacers learned that C Jaime Ruiz bruised his hip at the local car wash and will be out for slightly more than a week. He was fined by the team as well, though no Pacers representative was available for comment.
Just two days before the midseason All Star weekend kicks off Chicago Bulls Doyle Fee broke his right index finger while pointing at an unidentified teammate and will be unavailable for the next 9 days. On the same night Lutz Gerstl of the Hawks inflammed his appendix during a team barbecue event abd will be out for the next 9 days. The team cook has been fired.
And on the final day of this sim, Terry Przybilla from the Rockets went down with a sprained wrist.
Legue officials are trying to determine if some external influence was responsible for these incidents but declined to comment during investigations. We will keep you updated
NewsflashStay tuned for some in depth reports from sim 6 play action as well.
Nothing new in the standings at midseason, with Cavs leading he East and the league at 31-9. The Magic hold the Atlantic lead, the Blazers still top the Pacific, and the Spurs lead an unbelievably strong midwest division (the 7th place team there is just one game behind the 2nd place Sonics from the Pacific div, where we might see only the division winner getting a playoff berth.)
So stay tuned ... and discuss.
