Injuries Test Team Depth And Endurance
Injuries have a huge say in which teams endure the long road to the NBA Finals.
in the 2001-2002 season, the Philadelphia 76ers felt that they had arrived, and in the following off-season, the team loaded their roster with players acquired by trading draft picks – using their 2003 first round pick in a package to pry Jerome Moiso from the Boston Celtics. Then they tossed Moiso in a package to the Charlotte Hornets and their 2005 first round pick to the Golden State Warriors in a three way trade. They ended up with Derrick Coleman and two other players.
Now they were loaded for bear. But the team did not factor in the great constant of the NBA, and of professional sports for that matter.
Injury.
A broken hand to shooting guard Allen Iverson hurt the team where it could least afford to be hurt – at the fulcrum to the offense. The Philadelphia 76ers would go on an eight game losing streak before beating the New York Knicks on March 24, 2002. Iverson was not the only star to miss games that season.
Aaron McKie, the previous season’s Sixth Man of the Year, would miss 23 of 26 games while battling through an ankle sprain. Derrick Coleman, newly acquired to add offense to compliment Allen Iverson, battled through a sore left knee. Doctors felt the cause to be hyper-extension and prescribed rest. Rest came, after the Sixers were shown the door in a far too short playoff appearance.
Next: Panic Set In