DERECK LIVELY II, a 21-year-old center who projects as a long-term cornerstone, was listed as questionable on Jan. 20 because of a right ankle sprain after sitting out the previous two games. Under Belton's supervision, Lively went through an intense return-to-play workout before sitting out again that night.
The plan was for Lively to play at home two nights later against the
Minnesota Timberwolves.
But Bilsborough had concerns, prompting him to send Lively for a CT scan. It revealed a stress fracture in his right ankle that sidelined the center for the next 2½ months.
"Somebody should be fired for that," a team source said then.
It was a symptom of a much larger problem, multiple team sources said.
Harrison, though, portrayed the handling of Lively's injury as proof that his medical staff is "elite," as he said Tuesday. Sources said that Lively's camp was pleased with Bilsborough's communication and collaboration during the recovery and rehab process.
"It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms where our medical team knew it was something more," Harrison said. "So that's why they went and tested them again and saw the CT scan, which they actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury. So you know, you will take the angle of being negative, but it's actually a positive thing, because they saw with the symptoms, even though he was cleared to play, they didn't feel right putting him on the floor.
"And so they went back. They stopped him from playing. They went back. They retested, and thank God we saw that he had a stress fracture."
