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One game, one very sad and scary thing: v1. 21

I’m not trying to be alarmist here, but it’s hard not be. That was alarming as hell.

As I watched T.J. Ford going down like a rag doll in the fourth quarter my only thoughts were: a) please move something and b) regardless of what happens, is this the end of Ford’s career?

Far and away the most important concern is the former. The reports from Atlanta are that Ford does have feeling in his extremities and he’s spent the night in hospital there.

I’m going to assume that the worst didn’t happen. I’m going to assume that Ford will be able walk and move and lift his beautiful little son up like he loves to do.

If he can’t then what else really matters?

But if he can clear that essential hurdle then you have to consider the latter: How long is T.J. Ford destined to play in the NBA? You can’t help but wonder if he’ll play again. There’s no way anyone can be sure that he should.

Doubtless any normal sized person who gets slapped hard in the head by Al Horford is going to go down, and go down hard. Al Horford is a big man.

But since I was at home for this one I was able to watch it frame-by-frame. It wasn’t pleasant viewing. Normally I’m the type who can’t watch a replay of a sprained ankle.

But to my untrained eye it was instructive. If you look at it carefully it’s apparent that Ford was out, or at least in some way compromised, before his head ever hit that floor in Atlanta.

Horford’s hand comes down on Ford’s head and pulls it back, compressing the neck with considerable force. An instant later Ford’s body is still in the air but it’s changed in attitude. He’s slumping. He’s got no sense of where he is. He makes no effort to adjust his fall or break it by reaching back with his arms.

It’s sack of potatoes time and Ford’s backside lands first setting up that nasty whip-lash effect which a lot of hockey and boxing people will tell you is the source of the worst concussions: It’s not the initial blow, it’s the bounce off the ice or the ring floor that does the damage.

Right now a plain old concussion, scary as they are, would sound pretty good to T.J. Ford, I bet.

When the Raptors traded for Ford in the summer of 2006 they did a very thorough medical evaluation. The reason was that Ford had missed half of his rookie season and all of his second NBA season because he required surgery to fuse to vertebrae in his neck after an on-court collision left him feeling numb all over and required him to be taken away on a stretcher.

There was a risk, but in Ford’s case all the best advice was that it was an acceptable risk, not out of line with the risk any professional athlete takes.

It’s becoming ever clearer that that kind of evaluation -- which Ford has been the subject of time and time again in his basketball career -- is at best wishful thinking.

The summer before Ford was to enter the University of Texas he had another scary moment when he hit the floor and didn’t get up. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which, put simply, is abnormal narrowing of the openings of the vertebra through which the spinal cord runs.

Surgery was considered and but eventually ruled out and Ford enjoyed two stellar seasons at the University of Texas without incident.

But it is that condition – which is congenital -- that informs all his problems since. When Ford gets hit or falls in an unusual way it puts pressure on his spinal cord in a way not experienced by other people. End of story.

And it would be the end of the story except that Ford keeps playing; keeps taking shots, and keeps experience numbness in various parts of his body.

-- In the spring of his sophomore year, after he had declared for the NBA draft and signed with an agent, Ford was playing pick-up at Texas and had another scary moment. He was slapped across the neck, hit the floor and didn’t move for the entire hour it took for an ambulance to arrive and remove him.

-- After the Bucks drafted him No.8 overall in 2003 Ford was exceeding expectations when he collided hard with Mark Madsen of the Minnesota Timberwolves and didn’t get up. He landed on his tailbone, but the jarring fall caused a whip-lash effect severe enough that he bruised his spinal cord. He was out of basketball for a year-and-a-half.

-- Ford was incident-free for his last season in Milwaukee and his first year in Toronto until he was slammed to floor after getting tangled up with Vince Carter in Game 5 during the playoffs last season. He was diagnosed with a stinger – basically an irritation of the nerves that emanate from his neck and run across his shoulders and down his arms.

-- He suffered another stinger just two weeks ago in Dallas after Josh Howard hit him in the chest, and missed five games.

If Ford is at no more risk than anyone else of an injury, why does he lead the team in stingers? Why does he lead the NBA in being carried off on a stretcher?

When you talk to Ford he sounds like a guy who’s either unaware that it’s weird to be having these kinds of problems, or maybe in denial. "I haven't had many injuries, so it doesn't really bother me [mentally]," Ford said the other day when he was getting ready to return to the lineup. "I know I am not at greater risk but, you know, it is always a risk when I am playing."

I think everyone would agree that yes, there is a hell of a risk when he plays.

Who knows what symptoms he experienced after his fall last night. But was a nasty, nasty blow. His neck looked like it was vulnerable. His body looked limp. And then they took him away on a stretcher again.

Assuming Ford does recover from this latest incident, Ford and those around him should give some very serious thought to making sure that’s the last time he needs a stretcher at a basketball game.

One good reason among many is because of what happened to Ford when he was away from basketball after his rookie. A great thing happened: he met his girlfriend and they had a son together, T.J. Jr. who is a regular fixture in the Raptors locker room after games.

He’s a sweet little guy, about three years old, and Ford clearly dotes on him; the guy is father. A lot of times the post-game interviews will end and Ford will swoop down to pick up his namesake and carry him out on his shoulder like he’d just won the Rose Bowl or something.

You can’t help but smile when you see it.

And when you see something like what happened last night you hope – pray if you’re that way -- that nothing T.J. Ford ever does on a basketball court will bring that little father-son ceremony to an untimely end.