It has been a rough 72 hours for the Golden State Warriors' All-Star "Splash Brothers" duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. But perhaps it has been that much rougher for the NBA's concussion protocol.
Two days after Curry suffered a nasty fall on his head, neck and back, but was allowed to return to Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Houston Rockets and his Golden State Warriors (after reportedly passing the league's concussion protocol twice), Thompson was inadvertently kneed in the head during Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Crashing to the floor in the world of pain, Thompson grabbed his head and lacerated ear as he walked off the court in the fourth quarter. Like Curry on Monday night, Thompson passed the league's concussion protocol tests and was cleared to return to the game, but unlike Curry, he did not.
"Klay Thompson was evaluated by the Warriors medical staff immediately after suffering an injury during tonight's game and was put through a concussion evaluation," the team said in a press release statement Wednesday night, as reported by ESPN. "At the time he did not show any concussion-like symptoms. After the game he began to not feel well and developed concussion-like symptoms. He will continue to be evaluated by the team's medical staff tonight."
Thompson himself admitted to ESPN Radio that he was "feeling a little dizzy" after the game, but added, "we got a week off [until the NBA Finals] — or close to it. I'll be all right. I'll get my health back." Thompson will have to pass the league's concussion protocol test, before being cleared to play in the NBA Finals, where the Warriors will challenge LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, beginning June 4.
Like Curry, Thompson's injury is triggering plenty of questions for the NBA's concussion policy, which states: "If a player is suspected of having a concussion, or exhibits the signs or symptoms of concussion, they will be removed from participation and undergo evaluation by the medical staff in a quiet, distraction-free environment conducive to conducting a neurological evaluation."
In addition: "The return to participation protocol involves several steps of increasing exertion - from a stationary bike, to jogging, to agility work, to noncontact team drills. With each step, a player must be symptom free to move to the next step. If a player is not symptom free after a step, he stops until he is symptom free and begins again at the previous step of the protocol (i.e., the last step he passed without any symptoms)."
Both Curry and Thompson passed the league's concussion protocol tests and were cleared to return to the games. Curry returned midway through the third quarter of Game 4 and was later diagnosed with a head contusion. Thompson didn't return and later felt concussion-like symptoms.
This is the warning that Dr. Ben Wedro, an emergency physician at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis., and writer for MDdirect.org, tried to make when speaking with Tech Times about Curry's fall and the league's concussion guidelines on Tuesday evening. His main issue with the NBA's concussion protocol was that it allows players to return to games ... even though symptoms of a concussion can be delayed, as in Thompson's case.
Wedro reaffirmed his position on that, talking with Tech Times on Thursday morning as well.
"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."
Calls to the Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the director of the NBA's Concussion Program, weren't returned.
Perhaps the combination of Curry's scary fall and Thompson's incident will make the league take a closer look at possibly amending its concussion guidelines to where a player who is feared to have suffered a concussion cannot return to that same game.
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