File this one under: What the hell, is this dude a cyborg or something? Less than three weeks ago, the Memphis Grizzlies suffered a presumably terrible blow when Mike Conley was injured by an inadvertent knee to the back. Immediate reports indicated that it was similar to the injury that Tony Romo suffered earlier this season, and that was significant to keep him sidelined for a good chunk of the NFL regular season (costing him his starting gig in the process). As such, Conley was reportedly going to miss at least six weeks due to “broken bones on the vertebrae of his lower back.”
“Was” being the key word, apparently, because the Grizzlies say their $153 million man is back and ready to play. According to NBA.com, Conley will play against the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. That’s rather shocking for two reasons:
1) Again, this can’t be emphasized enough, he broke bones on the vertebrae in his lower back on this play:
2) Memphis doesn’t really seem to need him back so soon. Prior to Tuesday’s loss to the Cavaliers, the fifth-place Grizzlies won six in a row, and they got revenge for that streak-snapping loss with a 93-85 win against Cleveland the next night (granted, the Cavs were resting players, as you already know from angry men shouting, but a win’s a win.)
It’ll be interesting to see how much Conley plays against the Kings, but we can be sure that if he logs significant minutes and plays well, angry sports fans will say mean things about Romo. But, then, that’s bound to happen anyway.
