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Even amid the giddiness of a locker room tasting victory for the first time in nine long days, Kurt Thomas knew enough to be a voice of reason.
All around him late Monday night in Salt Lake City, teammates were joyously chanting his initials (“K! T!”) and breaking his chops and cracking jokes — when they weren’t solemnly saluting what they all knew was a painful night at the office, that is — and generally having great raucous fun at Thomas’ expense.
Yet even then, you could tell Thomas knew this was no fairy tale. He’s too old to be as “naïve” as Carmelo Anthony had labeled his own relationship with injuries not long before. He has logged too many miles on that 40-year-old body. He knows today’s bone spur can become tomorrow’s sprain, strain or fracture once you slip into an MRI tube.
“Whenever you have a nagging injury like this, you definitely have some concern,” Thomas said. “So we’re going to get a look at it. See what’s going on.”
He looked around the visitor’s dressing room at Energy Solutions Arena, smiled, shook his head.
“Just trying to have a little fun out there,” he said.
It’s hard to believe he didn’t already know what the film would reveal once the Knicks’ charter landed in New York, once the doctors took a closer look. Hard to believe he didn’t already know the original diagnosis — stress fracture, right foot — would wind up being the correct one. And hell: If you’re going to go out, why not go out like Butch and Sundance, running into the fire?
“It was beautiful,” he said. “The whole night. Beautiful.”
Today is a little less so for the Knicks, because the rule of the season has been clearly defined: Whenever a little progress rises out of the abyss, storm clouds gather to consume it.
And so there was the news that Thomas’ injury will shelve him for two to four weeks (though you can find plenty of evidence, online and elsewhere, this is an injury that actually requires two to four months in a young man, let alone one who already has blown out 40 candles).
And so there was Tyson Chandler, also submitting to an MRI exam, which yielded the news of a bulging disk in his neck. While it seemed for a while on the 1-4 West Coast trip that Chandler may have sustained a catastrophic knee injury, it turns out the neck is what will keep him out for at least a week — terrible timing when the Knicks are trying to collect as many winnable games as possible against Orlando and Toronto before next Tuesday’s showdown with the Celtics in Boston.
And there was even the briefly disconcerting sight of Jason Kidd being led out of the Knicks locker room Monday with heavy wrapping and ice swaddling his left wrist, accompanied by Dr. Lisa Callahan, the team doctor, on the way to an X-ray room. Those proved to be negative; you take whatever good news you can get and run like hell.
“We’re banged up a little bit,” coach Mike Woodson said, deadpan enough that you know even he has become grateful whenever his players jump in the air and don’t slip on banana peels.
This is a tricky spot for the Knicks across these next few weeks. If Carmelo Anthony returns for tonight’s game against the Magic, as is expected, he won’t be afforded much grace time to slowly weave his way back into the Knicks’ rhythms. They need to start clicking again. There were times during the trip when you could see that happening — too often those flashes were followed by long lapses of morose offense.
But Woodson is going to have to be creative. He can’t just say he’s going to limit Melo’s minutes, he actually needs to do it. That probably means more time for Chris Copeland, a fan favorite whose lapses drive Woodson nuts, but whose offensive skills are a must now. And inside? The Knicks are currently down to the following players who stand 6-foot-9 or taller: Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Steve Novak.
Yes. Steve Novak, inside force. This could get awfully interesting. Interpret that any way you like.