BODY PARTS AND HOW TO PROTECT THEM ...

Miami Heat Magazine, Vol. III, No. 6, April 1992

Professional basketball is a very physically demanding sport.  One of the major goals of the medical staff is to maintain the conditioning of our athletes in an effort to improve performance as well as decrease the risk of injury.  In addition, many of our athletes wear protective devices in an effort to further decrease the risk of injury or, in certain cases, to allow an injury to heal while still being able to participate in competitive play.

Many people are curious as to why our players wear those "braces and straps."

Many ankle injuries occur when a player "turns" his ankle inward.  This commonly occurs when landing after a jump or stepping on another player's foot.  The greater the inward twist to the ankle the more severe the ligament sprain is.  All our players are required to have their ankles taped or braced for every practice and every game.  Since we have instituted this policy, it appears that the number and severity of our ankle injuries have decreased.   The three most commonly used braces by our athletes at the present time are the "Alps" brace worn by Glen Rice, and the "Active Ankle" brace worn by Rony Seikaly.  The other is the "Aircast" brace which is used by many of our athletes during recovery from ankle sprains by permitting motion while still allowing ligament healing.  The "Aircast" brace can also be used during athletic competition.

Another common area where braces and straps are used is the treatment of knee conditions.  The "Patellar Strap" worn by several of our athletes just below the knee decreases the symptoms related to patellar "kneecap" tendinitis.  The "Knee Sleeves" are also used by athletes to decrease the symptoms of tendinitis or knee cap pain.

Hand injuries are common in basketball.   We have used several splints and braces in an effort to allow our athletes' injuries to heal and still allow them to play.  Rigid splints cannot be worn as these theoretically could be used as a weapon.  Therefore, we use special splints that allow protection but are still soft enough to permit a good shooting touch and no violation of league rules.  A "Thumbkeeper's" splint was used by Rice, Billy Thompson, and Sylvester Gray when they had sprains of their thumb collateral ligaments.  More traditional finger splints have been used by Grant Long, Rice and Seikaly while recovering from finger fractures and dislocations.

The goal of the medical staff is not just the treatment of injuries, but also to decrease our injury rate.  If an injury occurs, our goal is not only to get the injury better, but to decrease the chance of that injury recurring.  This goal is accomplished through rapid diagnosis and treatment, a rehabilitation program, and in many circumstances protective bracing, strapping or splinting.