Stephen Curry lucked out in suffering only a head contusion from his nasty fall during Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night.
Klay Thompson wasn't however as fortunate in Game 5. The Golden State Warriors All-Star shooting guard was inadvertently kneed in the head on Wednesday night. On Friday, the team officially announced that he sustained a concussion. That means he could wind up missing part of the NBA Finals if he's not cleared to play by June 4.
"Following extensive examinations over the last two days – including neurological tests earlier this morning – Warriors guard Klay Thompson has been diagnosed with a concussion," the team said in a statement to the press. "He will not return to the court until he is symptom-free and cleared under the NBA's concussion protocol guidelines. He will be evaluated daily and there is no timetable for his return."
Originally, Thompson, like Curry, cleared the NBA's concussion protocol of tests and was cleared to return to the game. But unlike Curry in Game 4, Thompson didn't return in Game 5. He then started feeling dizzy well after the game on Wednesday night and a series of tests later concluded with Friday's news that he had suffered a concussion.
This is the exact warning that Dr. Ben Wedro, an emergency physician at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and writer for MDdirect.org, was trying to make in pointing out a key flaw in the NBA's concussion protocol to Tech Times. Symptoms of a concussion can be delayed... this case being one of those instances.
"The diagnosis of a concussion is very difficult early on. That's just the bottom line. There's no solid way to diagnose a concussion. Symptoms can be delayed," Wedro said. "If there's a concern that a patient or player has sustained a concussion, that's concern enough to keep them out of the game for the rest of the game."
The NBA might want to go back, take a good, hard look at its concussion guidelines and bar players feared of being concussed from returning to the same game.
Tip-off of the NBA Finals begins with Game 1 on Thursday night. Let's see if Thompson is able to make it.
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