Caris LeVert played with foot pain and knee tendinitis throughout the season

Submitted by BlueCube on

According to MLi ve, Caris LeVert played through noticeable pain much of last year. This is according to GRIII and Nik Stauskas. He complained of foot pain as well as sore knees . Obviously he had foot surgery recently to repair a stress fracture of his foot.

MLive Link

 

We can now return to talking about all of the injured players on the Michigan State basketball team.

 

Seriously this makes me even more optimistic of another huge uptick in LeVert's play now that he should no longer have to worry about his foot. I'm not sure if the foot issue could have contributed to the knee tendinitis but I would assume it might.

maizenblue92

May 17th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^

On a related note, not to be outdone, MSU is reporting that Valentine played with hangnail on his toe. He had it removed in December but it affected him mentally all year. His quote, "I will recover. It may take time but I will be at full strength soon."

LSAClassOf2000

May 17th, 2014 at 3:56 PM ^

In keeping with the spirit of the hangnail and to ensure that fans do not forget the great trials of this past season, the first 1,000 fans to enter Breslin decidedly favoring one foot will get a voucher for a free pop and foot care kit. 

As for LeVert, hopefully the recent surgery for the stree fracture and the rest helps out quite a bit. I do admire that he did his best to play through it for the benefit of the team though, but I will say that this is almost as much of a "Wow..." moment for me than the announcement that he had surgery - I never would have thought that he was in pain like this any point.

hart20

May 17th, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^

If his foot injury caused him to favor the knee with tendinitis, it would probably exacerbate it. 

Tendinitis is a bitch, either way. Now that he has it, it'll probably keep rising up as an issue again and again. 

gwkrlghl

May 17th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^

I think our 1-3 wil be one of the very best in the country. If Irvin continues to follow in Nik's path and goes from "Not just a shooter" to "Oh wow, he's really not just a shooter", watch out

gwkrlghl

May 17th, 2014 at 4:29 PM ^

He had a few more moves to the bucket than Irvin did but they were pretty similar as freshmen. Nik's leap from freshman to sophmore year was dramatic - I was pleasantly shocked the first few times I saw him drive the lane with such authority this season as it was competely absent from his repertoire last year

freejs

May 18th, 2014 at 11:33 PM ^

if you saw Nik play prior to arriving in Ann Arbor, you knew he had a lot to his game.

I didn't see much of Irvin outside of highlights, so I don't know just how multifaceted his game truly is.

Nik also always had the crazy confidence and the ridiculous work ethic. Like not just really good, but off the charts on both those counts. That's hard to match. I have high hopes for Zak, but there's only one Nik Stauskas. 

TIMMMAAY

May 17th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^

It's nice knowing these things, but I almost feel like it would be better for Caris if his former teammates kept the details quiet. I could potentially hurt his draft stock next year. 

WolverLaker

May 17th, 2014 at 3:58 PM ^

The foot problem would most definitely contribute to the knee pain.  He probably changed the way he walked and that in turn changed the way his knees were absorbing the forces from the ground.  Normally this would be just OK because many places on the body can compensate for other places not working right.  The knees, however, are caught in the middle with no place to go, so due to improper foot biomechanics, he was getting knee pain as well.

TheNema

May 17th, 2014 at 4:14 PM ^

I am totally confident that LeVert will be first team B1G this year and think he has a very good shot to get us three straight conference POYs. 

Becoming a leader this offseason will be as important as healing up.

Perkis-Size Me

May 17th, 2014 at 6:06 PM ^

First team all big ten is definitely doable, and so is Big ten poty. But he's going to have tough competition in Kaminsky. I'd say he's the front runner right now, along with Wisconsin being the preseason conference favorites. Rightfully so.

Then again, MSU was the heavy favorite last year and we won the conference by three whole games, so we can't ever count a Beilein-coached team out.

SHub'68

May 17th, 2014 at 6:11 PM ^

might be due, in part, to his rapid growth. I have a similar body type to his (though I stopped growing at 6' 4") and always had sore tendons in my knees. Never serious enough for surgery, but enough to make sports painful sometimes. Dr. said it was likely due to rapid growth. Usually, warm-ups and the first few minutes on the court took care of it. Sometimes it didn't, and that slowed me down a little. If nothing is torn, there is physical therapy, anti-inflammatory meds, and you play through it.

Wendyk5

May 17th, 2014 at 7:10 PM ^

My son grew 6 inches this year, and it hurts me to watch him run because it looks like it hurts him. He has had knee, hamstring and back issues and I keep thinking, the knee bone's connected to the shin bone.....it's all connected. Once one thing goes, other things follow. 

CrazyMichiganFan

May 17th, 2014 at 10:25 PM ^

This that and the other... Let's talk a little more about Dawson's hand and the possibility that it can affect the entire Spartan team next season, if they perform poorly. Yea, let's talk about that.

Mr. Yost

May 18th, 2014 at 9:29 AM ^

Doesn't EVERY basketball player have foot pain and knee tendonitis?

I think we blow things like this out of proportion. This is pretty common for anyone who runs and jumps and hardwood all the time.

As a matter of fact, I don't know if I know more than 5 people who've played basketball and don't have bad knees.

And foot pain? He had a stress fracture. Hell yea he had foot pain. But the way the article made it sound...I mean we all have foot pain at some point. Chics that walk around in heels all day have foot pain.

We gotta stop acting like athletes are different than the rest of us people...we all have foot, knee and back pain and we all know hundreds or thousands of people just like us. 

Athletes are going to be just the same way, they don't play their sport pain-free.

I bet 90% of the NBA has knee tendonitis and they get professional care and treatment every single day.