I don't know if any of you guys watched it but the way he went down, it looked pretty bad. He went from standing up on his knees to laying on the ground holding his back.


Houston star Tracy McGrady left the Rockets' game Sunday night against Denver with a recurrence of severe back spasms.

The 6-foot-9 McGrady, who missed eight games earlier in the season because of back spasms, missed a deep jumper near the top of the key in the final seconds of the first half. He started backpedalling, stopped abruptly, bent over and crumpled to the floor, screaming in pain as the buzzer sounded.

McGrady was lifted onto a stretcher and rolled off the floor, surrounded by several team officials and owner Les Alexander. An ambulance took McGrady to the hospital.

"I heard him moaning and groaning," Alexander said. "It was really sad to see a guy be in that much pain."

Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis said after the game that McGrady was getting an MRI and would be re-evaluated on Monday.

Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy was evasive about McGrady's condition.

"You know what? It's about winning in this league," Van Gundy said. "It's not about trying, that should be a given."

McGrady's doctor reassured Alexander by phone after the game.

"The doctor told me he thinks it's a bad back spasm and hopefully, he'll be OK," Alexander said. "He doesn't think it's anything serious that will keep him out for a long time."

The Rockets are already missing their other star, Yao Ming, who's out at least another month after surgery to remove an infection from his left big toe.

Guards Rafer Alston and Jon Barry recently returned from leg injuries and Derek Anderson remains sidelined with a calf strain. The backcourt trio has missed a total of 45 games this season.

McGrady had topped 30 points in Houston's last five games. He had 11 points on 5-for-14 shooting in the first half against Denver.

"That's sports and we can't do anything about it," Alexander said. "We've got to play with the players we have. What can you do? You have no choice."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/nba/01/08/bc.bkn.rockets.mcgrady.ap/index.html

As a person with chronic back pain myself, I feel for him.

He has been talking of this contract being his final, but he might not make to the 2010 season.

I wonder exactly what he has wrong in his back. Surgery is not an option. It hardly ever works (I am talking after his career is over).


Art

If anyone saw the highlights, T-Mac definitely came down wrong on his back. Maybe he doesn't work out his back? I don't know, Ben says it the best:

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=49808



Power lifters
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Posted: January 3, 2006

Sporting News

Ben Wallace
6-9, 240
31 years old
Detroit Pistons

He weighed 190 pounds as a high school senior in White Hall, Ala. His transformation into the NBA's version of the Hulk didn't begin until he transferred to Virginia Union before his junior season and discovered a small, dank weight room: The Cage. "I loved what that place stood for," Wallace says. "You didn't walk into that place unless you were dead serious about working."

Wallace's max on the bench? Try 460 pounds. Of course, the man is, in his own words, "addicted."

"At the beginning of the week, I go for power. Toward the end of the week, I do a lot of reps," he says. "I work the arms, the chest, but a big focus that a lot of people don't even do anymore is the back. Once the back is strong, everything else falls into place."

damn, he was in a lot of pain.

He's been having these deep back spasms for awhile now. it's why he sat out so many games int eh begining of the season.

Yeah he was hurt in his days in Orlando too. Get better because your my number one pick in fantasy :x

Don't his back problems date all the way back* to Toronto?


*NPI