Guess what?
The Golden State Warriors know what they’re doing.
Following Stephen Curry’s nasty fall in Golden State’s Game 4 loss to the Houston Rockets, a bunch of people on social media decided to play doctor. The Warriors let Curry come back in, even though his fall looked gruesome and dangerous and like something that should keep him on the sidelines for at least the rest of Game 4.
See for yourself:
We’re not just talking arms and wrists and shoulders being put in jeopardy. Curry’s neck and head withstood blows too. How could the Warriors bring him back after a close call like that?
Well, for starters, they could have followed standard NBA concussion procedure. After that, they could have gone the extra mile, ensuring themselves of further piece of mind by putting Curry through even more tests.
And that’s just what they did.
Per Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News:
There was a moment in the Warriors’ locker room, almost an hour after Stephen Curry slammed his head against the floor, that he had passed every test and Game 4 was still going on.
In fact, according to Warriors general manager Bob Myers, the team doctors made Curry duplicate the concussion protocols to be doubly sure.
After that, Curry went into the hallway and ran back and forth a few times, which is not on any concussion protocol, but was common careful sense after such a scary fall.
The team was being extra cautious, and Curry wasn’t pushing anything—they all agreed he was OK to go back in. Curry’s father was in the area. Co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were there, too.
Curry looked, sounded and tested fine on Monday night and there were no indications about any further problems, Myers said on Tuesday, before the Warriors departed their hotel to fly back to the Bay Area.
“At the very, very end, when he passed the tests, then it became ‘there’s no reason he couldn’t play,’” Myers said. “So then it was, he passed the tests, passed them once, passed them twice…
“At that moment, he looked at me, said, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go.’”
Hopefully that quells any quasi-concern of those—specifically the non-doctors—who disagree with the Warriors’ decision to let Curry play.
Yes, they lost. But they kept cutting into Houston’s lead. The Rockets were just the better team. Could they have held him out, taking even more precautions? Absolutely. No one would have faulted them for doing for that.
However, no one can fault them for this. The Warriors did everything they needed to and then some. The fact that people were questioning their integrity at all, even in the immediate aftermath of Curry’s fall, was ridiculous in itself.
The Warriors aren’t going to be stupid with their best player and league MVP. End of story. This isn’t difficult to grasp. As yours truly tweeted on Monday night:
Did anyone really think Warriors would risk well-being of one of best NBA players ever just to win a series they’re going to win anyway?
— Dan Favale (@danfavale) May 26, 2015
Save the hot takes for another development. The Warriors have already thrown freezing-cold water all over this flaming pile of dog ejecta.
