Steph Curry thought he'd wake up with a dead man's tendons
Back in 2012 when the future of Steph Curry's greatness was in doubt, a possible surgical scenario involved tendons from a cadaver.
Before Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors had taken the NBA hostage, there was a time in which it looked like Curry's ankles wouldn't let us see what kind of potential he truly had. Curry was stuck in the mud with ankle injury after ankle injury that required multiple surgeries. When he was healthy, he was an exciting sharpshooter with the capability of taking over games. Too often we would see great stretches of basketball derailed by frustrating ankle turns.
In an in-depth piece by Pablo Torre in the upcoming ESPN the Magazine, we find out that the surgery which essentially turned the doubt surrounding Curry's ankles into hope of rectifying the situation involved a potential scenario in which a cadaver's tendons would replace the damaged tendons of the Warriors' young star. When Curry was falling asleep on the operating table, he didn't know if he'd wake up with a dead man's tendons in his own ankles.
STEPHEN CURRY DIDN'T know if he'd wake up owning a dead man's tendons.
Before the drugs hit, Ferkel had explained a range of potential outcomes. Less than a year before, in Curry's hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, a specialist had already sliced open that same right ankle and rebuilt two ligaments that had stretched apart like a rotting sweater. The worst-case scenario now? Total re-reconstruction, meaning that everything rebuilt in Curry's first surgery would be reattempted. If that proved necessary, they'd use better parts -- specifically, tendons from a cadaver -- and the projected recovery time would be at least six months. But such an operation would also be extreme enough that no one would be sure how the new hinge would hold up on the court. One near certainty: With Curry's rookie deal expiring in six months, on Nov. 1, 2012, his future with Golden State would be that much hazier. His agent would likely need to negotiate an extension before the undead ankle could appear in a game.
When Curry eventually blacked out on the operating table, however, a rather remarkable thing happened. A recent battery of strength tests, nerve tests, X-rays, MRIs and CAT scans had all failed to resolve why his ankle kept buckling. But a set of stress X-rays conducted midsleep, when pain can't impact motion, formally ruled out any structural damage to the ligaments. A 1-ounce HD camera snaked into Curry's subtalar and ankle joints produced images of thick, sticky bands of scar tissue -- "like crab meat," Ferkel says -- as well as inflamed tissue, bone spurs and chips of cartilage. To anyone else, orthopedic seafood might be revolting. To Curry, "it was good news," he says. "The least intrusive outcome." A motorized device called a shaver scraped and vacuumed all of it away in less than 90 minutes. No zombie tendons necessary. Projected recovery time: three to four months.
As we all know by now, the surgery and the training following that surgery have worked out for Curry and the Warriors. He's become arguably the best player in the world and credits the renewed appreciation for his own work ethic to those moments of rehab. Warriors GM Bob Myers says in the piece that Curry was turning his ankle in ways that didn't even seem possible. Since then, he's turned heads with his uncanny ability to dominate from the perimeter like a force we've never seen.
The process of correcting the issues with his strength, conditioning, and movement depicted in the piece by Torre show just how much thought, technology, and hard work went into correcting the problems with Curry. It also shows that people still don't totally feel he's out of the woods yet, and even those closest to him have been a bit terrified with recent injuries to his shin and calf that give them flashbacks of the problems Curry once endured.
Luckily for basketball fans, those problems were essentially corrected and we've been able to see just how much potential he truly possessed. For the rest of the league, perhaps it helps them find ways to correct injuries with their own stars, so we can get more potential unlocked to better the NBA.
