Given there are some two dozen members of the New York Mets on the disabled list or heading there, surely you’d scoff at the news club trainer Ray Ramirez was up for some kind of medical award? That’s not exactly what happened in Chicago, but it’s the best analogy I can come up with on very short notice after Bulls By The Horns found Chicago Bulls team doctor Brian Cole (above) a quizzical choice for 2009 NBA Team Physician of the Year.
Huh. Back in February, Drew Gooden was so concerned his groin pull/abdominal strain had been misdiagnosed that he sought the opinion of another specialist. Furthermore, Cole whiffed hard on identifying Luol Deng™s stress fracture. As Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune noted, that initial diagnosis basically made Luol look like a wimp and a quitter¦only Deng was really (and seriously) injured. I mean, the Bulld told Deng to œchallenge himself physically, but then an independent orthopedic surgeon ” someone with extensive knowledge of stress fractures of the lower leg ” told him to actively avoid putting weight on his leg. And, of course, as we all know, Luol never played again last season.