Athletes cope with ACL knee injury threat

By RONALD CLARK 

5/11/2007

Shaun Livingston was just looking for two points.

During a game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Feb. 26, the Los Angeles Clippers guard went up for a lay-up. Upon landing, he suffered one of the most devastating injuries seen in recent years.

Livingston, 20, tore parts of his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), medial collateral ligament (MCL) and his lateral meniscus.

In layman’s terms, his knee was jacked up.

Livingston not only tore the three initials every athlete is scared of, A-C-L, but also parts of its two cousins, PCL and MCL. Another young career was now in jeopardy due to knee problems.

Livingston is currently in rehab and is ahead of schedule for his return. But his injury, and the nasty manner in which it happened, brought back to the forefront the fear of suffering that one injury that can halt a promising career or derail another from ascending to greatness.

Knee injuries, particularly ACL injuries, are never welcomed. But they are not discriminatory to age, sex or size. The promising early careers of athletes whom nobody knows to athletes whose fans know them by first name, have suffered ACL injuries and had to deal with their repercussions.

George L. Richards III, a Hampton University senior broadcast journalism major from Detroit, tore his ACL in his right knee during his freshman year in high school.

“I didn’t really feel a pain,” Richards said. “I tried to get up and run but I couldn’t. My body was frozen. I didn’t really know what was going on. I had the trainer and the principal looking at my knee. The principal made a comment about my knee and told me not to move.”

Richards, 21, was ranked No. 51 in the state of Michigan in basketball prior to tearing his ACL. The 5-foot 11-inch guard was never the same.

“I’d never gotten hurt before,” Richards said. “I was the most energetic, flying around like a chicken-with-his-head cut off player.

“I remember diving for a ball, falling into a metal stack of chairs, getting up, beating everybody down the court, getting the ball and dunking it. I had more speed and more energy than anybody, and since we played a trapping defense, I ran wild. But I had no more speed after hurting my knee. The rehab made my thighs so much smaller that even to this day, my right thigh is smaller than my left.”

After rehabilitating his knee in time to attempt to return to the game he loved, Richards hurt his knee a second time during his sophomore year, ending any thoughts he had of moving on to the next level in basketball. Richards continued to play throughout high school, but he knew his plan would have to be shelved.

“I cried,” said Richards, recalling the moment when he realized his dreams would not come true. “I realized one night in bed before I went to sleep. Basketball was always the plan. I never excelled in school. Basketball was the way to satisfy me. It was all I really knew.”

This is one of many stories dealing with tearing an ACL before a career even had time to develop.

Oluwaseyi Oseni, the 6-foot 10-inch, 240-pound red shirt freshman for the Hampton University Pirates basketball team, did not tear his ACL in high school but had articular cartilage damage, also known as ACI.

He was undercut under the basket, and as soon as he landed he knew something was wrong. He had to red shirt his freshman year at Hampton and though the injury dropped his recruitment stock from high mid-major to low-mid major coming out of high school, he took the injury in stride.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Oseni said. “It humbles you. You can’t take it for granted. It makes you realize that [basketball] is a gift that can be taken away at any time. No one owes you [basketball].”

Oseni, 21, had to endure a similar rehabilitation process as athletes with ACL injuries. He had surgery but did not start rehabbing for three months. He endured rehab for his cardio and worked in the pool three times a week for an hour and a half to two hours for a year and some change. And his injury was cartilage damage, not an ACL.

Richards’ rehab process included working with a physical therapist three days a week. He was also given exercises to do two times a day, everyday. His workouts were to strengthen his quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles to strengthen the areas around the knee.

Before surgery, his knee was placed in a Velcro brace that did not allow any movement. The brace went from the middle of his calf to the middle of his thigh. After surgery, he wore an immobilizer that went from his ankle to his hip bone. The doctor put a metal joint in his brace and set it to move in a certain amount of degrees in either direction, slowly increasing the degrees as the knee got stronger.

This process took a year and two months after surgery.

Oseni and Richards represent the good and the bad of ACL and other knee injuries. The occasional freak of nature, like Oseni, can continue on, while Richards deals with the reality that his basketball career came to a screeching halt.

But then there are those who suffer injuries late in their careers, and it drastically alters the scope of their playing days.

NBA stars Jason Kidd, Chris Webber and Allan Houston all suffered knee injuries late in their careers – meaning in their thirties – that prevented them from playing at the level they were before their injuries.

Of the three, New Jersey Net Kidd has returned the closest to form. Webber, of the Detroit Pistons, is still playing and contributing to his team but is not the superstar-caliber player he once was. Houston, formerly of the New York Knicks, lost the lift in his jump shot that made him one of the premier shooters in the league during his 12-year career.

Now, Houston is in a booth on ESPN talking about the sport he once could play until his knees said no.

But what really happens when the knee says no? What is the ACL, and why is injuring it so devastating? Well, it is all in the structure of the knee.

According to aclsolutions.com, the ACL is one of a pair of ligaments in the center of the knee joint that forms a cross (the PCL is the other.) The ligament functions to stabilize the knee from front-to-back during normal and athletic activities. The ligaments of the knee make sure that the weight that is transmitted through the knee joint is centered within the joint minimizing the amount of wear and tear on the cartilage inside the knee.

Tearing the ACL as an athlete, therefore, takes away from the explosion an athlete needs in order to perform. Jumping, running, cutting, stopping, or any other sharp movements are drastically hindered because the ligament in place to protect the knee joint is damaged.

Knee injuries have become so common that they are hard to prevent. Being undercut like Oseni can announce its arrival, but, like Richards, an athlete may not even know he or she was hurt.

One thing is for certain – Shaun Livingston’s injury will forever be a reminder that athletes may be seen as physical specimens, but one injury can return them to civilian status.

The writer is a junior at Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.