Thursday, February 01, 2007
BREAKING NEWS OF BROKEN FOOT
Well, I guess I spoke too soon when I hailed my triumphant return to Euroleague action. "Norgy is back" is no longer accurate. During Wednesday's practice I broke my foot - spiral fracture of the fifth metatarsal in my right foot, to be specific. I'm out again, before I even had a chance to return. I can't express how upset I am about this - at least not in the same words I used when I first found out I would need surgery (my second in two weeks) that will keep me out at least six weeks. I can't honestly say that my absence will have the same affect on the game as the absence of Climamio's stars - James Thomas and Marco Belinelli. My gaudy stats are far from impressive. I expect the outcome to be very similar to what it would have been had I not been injured, but that doesn't give me any solace.
The injury in and of itself is bad enough, but the fact that my parents made a trip from Dawson, Minnesota to Poland (only their second visit to Europe during my hoops career) to see me play makes it even worse. As it was, my dad was at practice to witness more "proof" of what he likes to call "The Norgy jinx". He is the original Norgy. As I think back on my career, my dad's assessment seems to be accurate. Any game that my parents have been to has seemed to lead to bad luck for me. The "jinx" did not exist during my high school or college playing days - they saw me play many times with very few, if any, bad games. However, they have probably been to only 10-12 of my professional games (CBA, NBA, ABA and European) with only one or two games whose result was not "jinxed". Whether it was early foul trouble, poor shooting, or - in the case of Bucks at Timberwolves - not seeing a second of action all game, my parents seemed to bring bad luck. I never put much credence into a jinx, but after this stroke of bad luck my dad has declared that he will no longer come watch me play.
Whether he will stick to that claim is yet to be seen, I just hope the jinx doesn't affect the outcome of our game tonight. I don't expect it will, but I don't think I will be inviting my parents to the hospital to look in as the doctor opens me up Friday morning.
POSTED BY
JEFF NORDGAARD - SOPOT, POLAND