New Orleans Hornets guard Eric Gordon will miss three to six more weeks recovering from what the team has confirmed is a knee contusion.
Eric Gordon’s injury has been confirmed by the team to be a knee contusion and he will miss three to six more weeks as a result. Gordon, who last night turned down what Hornets247 learned was a four-year contract extension worth just over 50 million dollars, has played in only two games this season after being acquired in the deal that sent Chris Paul to the Clippers.
“We all worked hard on the extension, but sometimes business is business,” said Hornets guard Eric Gordon. “Right now my sole focus is on staying in great shape, and making sure I get back to 100% health as quickly as possible, so I can return to playing and helping my teammates and Coach Monty win games. That is really what it is all about right now for me.”
“We made good faith and amicable efforts to reach an agreement on a contract extension over the past few days,” said Hornets General Manager Dell Demps. “Unfortunately, although close, we did not reach an agreement. Eric will be a restricted free agent this summer and we are optimistic and encouraged with the opportunity to sign Eric to a contract that will make him a member of the Hornets organization and community for years to come.”
Team doctors recommend rest for his knee. Gordon is expected to resume full basketball activities and return to the court once the recommended rest time is up.
It must be noted that the injury, although not the severity, was identified correctly by the team’s medical staff. A contusion is by definition a bruise, which is what the initial diagnosis was. This further clarification about the severity of it is certainly disappointing, but some injuries are harder to gauge the severity of than others. From a few minutes poking around on the web, a bone bruise is one of them. Additionally, they can take a very long time to heal fully.
The question for the Hornets must now be what path to take the remainder of this season. I’ll leave that for someone else.
((Note from Ryan Schwan: Remember David West? During his second season with the Hornets, the one that led to us getting Chris Paul, he missed 52 games. The diagnosis? Bone Bruise. He went on to 6 more seasons with the Hornets.))
42 responses to “Eric Gordon Has a Knee Contusion, Will Miss 3-6 More Weeks”
Wow, I’m starting to get the feeling now that this guy doesn’t want to play for us, wish we could trade his sorry ass.
What? The guy gets hurt and you trash him?
I fail to see why you think that your medical opinion somehow is more valid than that of a Doctor or a player.
There’s no way he’s milking an injury. He DOES want to play for us. The guy would have signed a bigger contract offer last night, we just didn’t offer it to him.
Man, people have to ease up on this kid.
He’s a professional basketball player, he wants to be out there on the floor and nobody is in the position to speak on his behalf of whether or not he wants to do that in New Orleans.
Anyone who’s ever played sport at a competitive level knows that being sidelined with an injury is no fun, and all you want to do is get back out on the court, so imagine how EJ feels, playing basketball is his profession, and his livelihood.
Six more weeks of him getting back to 100% health and us losing a few games along the way is by far the worst thing that could happen to the Hornets right now.
After our 3-15 start we are already in contention for a number 1 overall pick in the draft next year, so sixteen more games without EJ could easily see us mirror that record through the next quarter and be on our way to an Anthony Davis draft pick.
Stay optimistic!
Take a look at the note I just posted about Bone Bruises. They can take a while – and the Hornets have had someone miss 52 games with one.
David West went to Indiana… ergo Eric Gordon will go to Indiana!
42, I get you were trying (and succeeding with me) to be funny.
I just tweeted something along these lines, but this whole Eric Gordon situation is getting increasingly odd. Contusion = bruise. Gordon has been out since January 4th, and will miss 3-6 more weeks past today. That puts us at 6-9 weeks, plus 10 more days if you’re counting from the day he originally injured the knee instead of his 1-game attempt at playing through it. What kind of bruise takes 2 months to heal? I’m no doctor, but I can’t help feeling like something’s missing here. Does anyone have any more educated medical insight than myself?
Maybe you know a doctor and can ask?
I just want this season to end because Gordon is done for the season anyway that 3 to 6 weeks is nothing but a cop out to get out of here get rid of the Hoosier.
(Added more by request)
So, a bruise, in the busted some blood vessels, mostly capillaries, sense.
The time makes it seem a bone bruise (bones have varying degrees of blood vessels). This can be associated with other injuries, such as to nearby and connected tissue. Bone bruises alone can take months, depending.
Lack of bloodflow can cause pain and inflammation, not to mention the mild structural damage it takes to cause the bruise that needs repairing. Swelling and stiffing results from the trauma and healing, so I understand. It’s a bruise, but bone is damaged to cause it, so it’s like lots of tiny breaks, like a spiderwebbed windshield as a metaphor, or crushed mildly, like when you first grip a shrimp and oyster poboy, buttered bread, warm, but noot too warm, nice red and white checkered table cloth, cold coke in a sweaty glass… anyway, all those bone crumbs can cause issues for the cleanup. So I’m told, so I’ve read.
Cartilage does not and can take way longer to heal. Hopefully there is no associated cartilage damage that may not have presented, such as a loosening but with no displacement.
A fracture can have many of the same traits and time and methods of healing, but can end up needing far more severe treatment.
You know, all of this makes me wonder who the genius doc was that cleared him to play that one game against Philly. How did that fly if the injury is this serious?
To be clear, I’m not an MD and I’m making the following up.
Picture skin over bone. Hammer down. Bruise the bone. The skin will be bruised, and badly.
If the contact seemed minor (it did), and there was a killer surface bruise with lots of pain and stiffness (gotta be), then the bone symptoms are masked by skin symptoms. If he chose to minimize the reporting (be tough), then he can fool the doc if he goes with that. Once they bust you, it’s kid gloves.
NY docs… independent views… it’s not a crazy story I just concocted.
it’s a torn PCL as i’ve read it from Web MD
Link.
Also, it said a bone contusion is a torn pcl or ej has one?
Pcl take 2-4 weeks I thought.
42, J either never links or links to something that doesn’t support what he says. That’s because he make this stuff up!!
Which is why I asked.
I know. Just wanted everyone else to also.
Eric Gordon real or unreal injury… such a shame, go to play for the Indiana Pacers… Trade him for one good player happy to play for New Orleans Hornets.
It’s not like he just doesn’t want to play for New Orleans. He wants more money. We did not offer him the max, and he is confident that he will get the max this offseason, which we will then have to match. Don’t go trading the potential future of the franchise. Stars are few and far between.
I know everyone is rattled by the recent Eric Gordon saga, but don’t lose focus. The Hornets season is DONE, if they get a few quality wins against some playoff caliber teams I will be happy. But the major goals for this season are A. develop young talent B. get a new lease agreement and C. GET A NEW OWNER!!!!!! If this happens, then this year is a success!!!!!!!!!
D. Retain the players managment deams core/important to the team.
Officially time to tank the season, er, “develop the young guys” right?
Why can’t anyone understand that this is probably 90% the political machine, and 10% Gordon (at best). It’s pretty simple folks.
1. The longer Gordon sit out, the more we’ll lose. The more we lose, the higher our draft pick.
2. Gordons gonna flirt and shop with other teams in hopes of getting a maximum offer, if he gets it, we may match it. Having him on the bench “injured”, lowers his stock substantially, and makes a maximum offer near an impossibility.
3. The higher the draft pics, the better the chances he’ll want to stay. (See 1)
It’s nothing personal, its business. He’s not dying to leave Nola, nor probably is he wanting to sit out. But its what’s best for this team now, and for the long run. If you can’t tell that we’ve already started tanking just by the Gordon factor alone, there’s plenty of other things you can look at to back it up. It makes no sense to start winning right now. And although next years draft IS deep, it drops off substantially after the #1 pick. Everyone that’s playing, plays hard when they do…but pay attention to the rotation, and it’ll all make sense. 🙂
Agreed 100% with every bit of this from a business and long-term perspective. The one problem that remains, however, is that little aspect of fan support. Fans don’t pack the arena to see a team with no star. We’re okay with it because we know what the future can hold, but what about the casual Hornets fan? Not an easy sell.
Anyone else get the $10 off mobile buzz coupon?
We need to try to attract people to see the Magic, so says the teaming giving $10 per seat away.
Mason’s point is a good one.
I don’t think it’s fair to think Gordon is tanking this season or playing more hurt than he is. He has not played a full season since he’s came into the league. He clearly has injury problems. His rookie year was the closest in which he only missed 4 games, but then there were major drop offs. The next two years he played 62 then 56 games and he will definitely miss more games than that this year (I know it is a short season but prob still would miss more if it was a full season). If we’re going to knock him, let’s knock him on being injury prone rather than what we don’t know. I’m not sure with the amount of games he misses that he is worth big time money. I don’t want to pay almost a max contract for 50 a guy who can’t stay on the court.
Not Saying Gordon himself is tanking. Just saying were really happy to be extra, extra careful to clear him. As I said, I think he wants to play, hence his 1 game return only to be sidelined again. I think if it were up to him, he’d be out there tomorrow. I don’t believe the Hornets want that, nor do they want to lose him. This is all intentional by the organization…not Gordon.
So I said something similar earlier today, but if I were Eric’s Dad I’d say something like “my son, are you freaking insane?? How could you leave 50+ Million on the table, not knowing exactly what the extent of your knee injury is??” Granted, the knee is more likely than not going to be fine but the kid appears injury prone and who knows what happens with this injury, a related injury (I’m always screwing up by over-compensating for the first injury) or any other. Bottom line, that’s a hell of a lot of money to walk away from in an uncertain situation …. maybe that’s one reason among many I’m not a professional athlete, nor could I represent one.
Related to the above is the fact that Eric will play what, 20 games this season? What franchise based on that, the totality of his playing career, and his injury history, would say we want this kid to be THE MAN a la Derrick Rose and Kevin Love?? Is Eric a great #2 guy on a franchise, but not quite up to max contract level?? I don’t know but I think there’s a good chance Eric Gordon made a big a** mistake last night.
Although I’m saddened that ej is not a long term hornet today, you hit the nail on the head about the best part of the news to me.
the fact that we offered him 50+ MIL and he DID NOT accept it means he is NOT broken that badly.
As I understand it there’s only a difference of 2 mil a year between what we offered and he can get. Do you really think if he gets that offer from another team we won’t pay him a 15 % bump over our initial offer?
Full tank mode is on. I mean c’mon Monty didnt even suit up Chris Kaman last night! You cant tell me he’s the 5th best big on the team. The dude should probably be starting. Monty said he sat Kaman so he could get a good look at the young guys. I just hope we can get some value for Kaman at the trade deadline cause there is no way he is coming back to NOLA next year.
Do you seriously think Kaman is better than Okafor, Smith, Landry, or Ayon? If so, find something objective to back your statement up.
What value do you think you get for a turnover prone big who can’t play inside?
The negativity is beyond comprehension. It truly is frustrating to read most of your idiotic comments and “bold” declarations that state he truly doesn’t want to play for us at all.
We have ZERO(0), NONE, ZILCH, NADA (need I continue?) shot at making the playoffs were EG10 to return to the Hornets tomorrow. Demps knows this. Monty knows this. The players know this.
The Hornets are protecting their investment, nothing more, nothing less. Eric Gordon has given us zero indication he does not want to be here. There are no ESPN or Yahoo! “sources” reporting the like or anything. All he wants is more money than we were offering him and he thinks he will get it in RFA.
You people just don’t get it. What is more likely to keep EG10 in a Hornets uniform? Ranting and raving on Twitter/Facebook/Blogs that he “ABSOLUTELY DOESNT WANT TO BE HERE OMG HE RT’D SUMMERS HAPPY BDAY INSTEAD OF TAKING THE TIME TO COMPOSE A NEW ONE!!!!!” or “Get well EG10, we know these things can take time and we know you’re looking forward to next year and the years following as much as we are.”
It’s not a hard concept.
Positive reinforcement > negative reinforcement 100000% of the time.
Need proof? Look at LSU. The fans blew up and every bit of news since then has been negative. Give the guy a break. Everyone’s doing what is best for the future of the franchise.
Very well said!
+1 Monty’s doghouse/I’mSorryMonty!!
The less games Eric Gordon plays this year the better anyway. I want to see him on the floor for entertainment value as much as anyone, but think long-term people.
The hornets offered 4 yr/50million (appx). if he were to sign as a restricted FA, the offer would be less than this because the hornets can pay him more than any other team. so for example, if the pacers were to sign Gordon to a similar deal, which is the max they can offer, the Hornets will match it.
If no one is willing to make EG an offer because they think the Hornets were going to match, then EG has two options:
1. sign the extension with the Hornets, at 4 yrs/50 million for an average of 12.5 mill/year OR
2. take his qualifying offer of around 6 million, give up about 6 million bucks he will never get back, and become an unrestricted free agent where the biggest deal he will be able to sign with another team is almost the exact same deal as he gave up, and that is IF another team is willing to use their max contract designation on him.
Hornets hold all the cards. If Gordon leaves, it will be him negotiating a contract with another team and working out a sign and trade w/ the Hornets so that he can get more money and the other team gets the assurance that the Hornets won’t match.
What are the odds this summer Gordon fired Plenka and hire Leon anti small market Rose as his agent then we’ll really be in trouble
[…] voltar a jogar e ajudar o zangões a vencerem partidas. Perfeito. Até aí, tudo muito bom. Só que outra notícia que saiu, recentemente, é a seguinte: o Gordon ficará mais três semanas afastado, por causa da […]
Do anyone know what teams would want Kaman in a trade?
question
I posted some #s above which i think are erroneous, I now see we could have offered gordon 4 yrs@ 16 or 5 @ 78 mil
does that change when he is and rfa and what is the most another team can offer?
I am amazed by the note from Ryan Schwan. I simply hope for a better 6-year stretch starting from the 2012 Draft Night. 🙂
Question: Does anybody know if Eric Gordon can walk with his bruised knee? If so, why is he not showing up on the bench with a suit at home games? Is he getting treatment in a different city or state, I thought he was only resting his knee at the moment?
I think he’s there at home.
Let’s look tonight, eh?