Wednesday, February 23, 2005

For Raul Lopez life just isn't fair

The Utah Jazz announced that point guard Raul Lopez will have season ending knee surgery. The good news is that this is not further damage to his twice-repaired left knee. The bad news is that this was his 'good' knee. For a point guard with the right attitude and a load of youthful talent, his brief NBA career has been an injury fest. Raul has shown a lot of perseverance, but this is getting ridiculous. This is definitely something classified as bad things happening to good person, again.

The injury leaves the Jazz with a thin point guard position. Luckily, Keith McLeod is expected back from injury for the Mavericks game. Howard Eisley will continue to handle back-up PG duties and is coming off two great games before the allstar break, where he averaged 17 pts and 10 assists against the Lakers and Suns.

The Jazz training staff stays busy as Carlos Boozer is expected to miss the game with injury as well. Andrei Kirilenko is said to be better after the all-star break and should return to action from his ankle injury.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Jerry Sloan. Trying to punish Arroyo he also punished Raul. Rehabilitation is an slow process, but Sloan put out of time extra work in Raul's knee. The result: a surgery in his "good" knee. Right now, Raul Lopez basketball career is a question mark.

Anonymous said...

RAUL WASNT READY FOR THE REGULAR POSITION OF POINTGUARD.MUCH PRESSURE FOR HE AND HIS KNEE

AndyinUtah said...

Thanks for the comments! Raul's career has been marred by injuries for sure. And while the Jazz should have expected him to be fragile, I think its incorrect to say he was pushed too hard this season. Remember he did play in all 82 games last year and played more minutes (19.7) on average last season than he did before his injury this season (16.7). The whole team has seen freak injuries this year, crazy!

Anonymous said...

Andy, you say "its incorrect to say he was pushed too hard this season" but when you say "play in all 82 games last year" you give us the reason. That's the clue. For a fragile player who miss the previous year play all the 82 games is too hard. The result: another surgery. Remember: he begins this year in the injured list.
Raul is a good player but he don't make a great impact in Jazz game (5.2pts; 4.0 asst.). What's the rush to put him in the floor? Easy pal, the great Jerry wanted to gave Arroyo a "lesson" and look the results in Lopez knee.