Danny Ainge Spilled The Beans This Morning That Jaylen Brown Is Dealing With Knee Tendonitis

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be a doctor. I also like an idiot didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. So, after hearing this news I did what any other rational fan would do. I went to the internet. Here's what I learned

Patellar tendinitis is an injury to the tendon connecting your kneecap (patella) to your shinbone. The patellar tendon works with the muscles at the front of your thigh to extend your knee so that you can kick, run and jump.

Patellar tendinitis, also known as jumper's knee, is most common in athletes whose sports involve frequent jumping — such as basketball and volleyball. However, even people who don't participate in jumping sports can get patellar tendinitis.

For most people, treatment of patellar tendinitis begins with physical therapy to stretch and strengthen the muscles around the knee.

Running and jumping you say. Feels important. I would say Jaylen Brown does a lot of those things. Let's continue

Complications

If you try to work through your pain, ignoring your body's warning signs, you could cause increasingly larger tears in the patellar tendon. Knee pain and reduced function can persist if you don't tend to the problem, and you may progress to the more serious patellar tendinopathy.

Very cool! Sure there were a bunch of medical words that I in no way understand or recognize but I do know "increasingly larger tears". That sounds less than ideal! OK, almost done

Prevention

To reduce your risk of developing patellar tendinitis, take these steps:

• Don't play through pain. As soon as you notice exercise-related knee pain, ice the area and rest. Until your knee is pain-free, avoid activities that put stress on your patellar tendon.
• Strengthen your muscles. Strong thigh muscles are better able to handle the stresses that can cause patellar tendinitis. Eccentric exercises, which involve lowering your leg very slowly after extending your knee, are particularly helpful.
• Improve your technique. To be sure you're using your body correctly, consider taking lessons or getting professional instructions when starting a new sport or using exercise equipment.

I suppose this is where most people will say this is no big deal, all you need to do is rest and things should be OK. I guess that's the positive way to look at this situation with Jaylen. Call me crazy, but I'm of the belief that having any sort of knee tendonitis is worse than not having it. A crazy take I know. I have a few issues with this new reality, starting here

Unless something happens today now that Ainge just told the world Jaylen has tendonitis in his knee, it sure as shit looks like he's playing through the pain which I just learned is the exact thing you do NOT want to do. Even after he said he felt a little something in his knee against the Jazz. That feels smart. Especially since I'm pretty sure the Celts told us Kemba had "tendonitis" and the next thing we knew he was getting stem cell injections and missing huge chunks of time. 

Here's the other problem. It's not like the Celts can really afford for Jaylen to miss serious time. Not with how they've underachieved to start the season. Things are already stressful enough with Smart out and Pritchard just getting back. Now we have to potentially sit our All NBA starting wing and second best player? For fucks sake what the hell is going on around here. How is it that this team is unable to give us a relatively healthy season and why are all these injuries happening to their best players. Personally, I will go to my grave saying it's the Isaiah Curse but that's just my rational brain talking. 

Part of me wants to say fuck it, shut his ass down for however long it takes for him to not have to worry about this. Rest of the first half, a month, who cares. A healthy Jaylen for the playoffs is most important. The other part of me also enjoys seeing this team win, which would become increasingly more difficult without Jaylen for long stretches. It's quite the pickle if you ask me.

I do wonder if this will force Ainge's hand to maybe do something at the deadline that he otherwise wouldn't. As currently constructed, I would say this team is not adequately built to survive for long stretches without Jaylen. That means something has to change in the next 5 weeks I would think. I do love how Ainge is trolling everyone

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but it's only fun if he's in fact working on something. 

Now, it should be stated that Jaylen did just do this 

while dealing with this issue, so that should make you feel better. The issue is more that this will most likely be something that lingers all year until Jaylen can get some legit rest. Not two games worth, but a long extended period of time. That's a gut punch for a guy that is having the best season of his career and is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

It just fucking sucks. All I want is to see this team play together healthy. Their original intended starting lineup has played 21 MINUTES together all season long. How they are a top 4 seed is a miracle when you combine that they've been playing like dogshit for the last month. Now this? Enough already. The Injury Gods need to start picking on someone else because this is getting a little out of hand.