Hayward, Lin out for year, and many others in NBA are ailing
Investigators at the International Olympic Committee expect to have “a number” of doping cases involving Russians at the Sochi Olympics resolved by the end of November, but they have no plans to dictate the eligibility of these athletes for next year’s Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
The leader of an IOC delegation in charge of reviewing 28 cases involving athletes at Sochi wrote this week to Angela Ruggiero, the head of the IOC Athletes Commission, to update the timeline of cases stemming from a report detailing a Russian doping scheme at the 2014 Olympics and beforehand.
Denis Oswald said of the cases his committee is reviewing, priority has been given to those involving athletes looking to compete in Pyeongchang. Top priority goes to six cross-country skiers whose provisional suspensions expire Oct. 31.
Oswald also said his committee would rule on these athletes’ results for Sochi, but will not determine their eligibility for Pyeongchang, instead handing over evidence to their respective sports federations to decide. The IOC made a similar decision before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year, which led to last-minute decisions on complex cases; ultimately, nearly 300 Russians competed.
This decision is a disappointment to the many anti-doping leaders who have called on the IOC to ban Russia from Pyeongchang.
“The IOC should not once again off-load the final decision-making on eligibility (and the pressure and risk of error) to International Federations, and at the last minute,” said Joseph de Pencier, the CEO of the Institute of National Doping Organizations, 37 of which have called for the Russian ban.
A separate IOC task force is looking at the Russian doping scandal as a whole, and the results from that probe could have wider repercussions on the country’s eligibility. In a separate letter sent to worldwide sports leaders, IOC president Thomas Bach said only that the task force, the Schmid Commission, is continuing its evaluation and that “I hope that the IOC Executive Board will still be able to take a decision this year because none of us want this serious issue to overshadow” the upcoming Olympics.
Both IOC commissions are operating off information from the McLaren Report, the first part of which was released in July 2016.
In explaining the timeline, Oswald wrote that because the Russian scheme involved exchanging drug-tainted urine samples with clean ones, it took time to adopt methods to verify that samples had been tampered with — in part by finding evidence of scratch marks on collection bottles that had been opened and resealed.
MIAMI — Brooklyn’s Jeremy Lin was horrified to see what happened to Gordon Hayward, whose season almost certainly ended in a most disturbing fashion five minutes into the Celtics’ season-opener.
A night later, Lin met a similar fate.
Here’s some of what should be celebrated from the opening nights of the NBA season: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo had a 37-point game, Cleveland’s LeBron James was one assist away from a triple-double, Houston beat Golden State on the Warriors’ ring night and Miami’s Hassan Whiteside went for 26 points and 22 rebounds.
It all seems overshadowed by injuries.
No, this is not the start the NBA wanted.
“It’s tough watching that happen to anybody in the NBA,” said Golden State guard Shaun Livingston, whose horrific knee injury from 2007 — so bad that doctors originally thought he could lose his leg — was compared to the grotesque nature of Hayward’s injury Tuesday night. “It’s all a brotherhood. You want to see guys succeed.”
Many members of the brotherhood are ailing, none causing bigger shock waves than Hayward.
San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played yet this season because of a quadriceps injury. The Warriors sent Draymond Green to get an MRI on an aching left knee, which sidelined him before the end of their season opener and has him listed as doubtful for Golden State’s game at New Orleans on Friday. Houston’s Chris Paul missed a game at Sacramento on Wednesday with knee pain. Cleveland’s Isaiah Thomas won’t be back until January, at least, while recovering from a hip injury.
And those guys, along with Hayward, are just the hurting AllStars from last season.
“There’s no doubt we’ll get him back to be better than he was before,” said Mark Bartelstein, Hayward’s agent.
Lin’s injury was nowhere near as visibly horrifying as Hayward’s, but the end result was the same — a bad landing at Indiana on Wednesday left him in tears and saying, “I’m done, I’m done.”
His personal diagnosis was officially confirmed Thursday morning: Lin ruptured the patella tendon in his right knee, the Nets said.
“We feel awful that the injury will cost him the season,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said.
Plenty of other teams are missing key players and would-be starters.
Among them: Utah’s Dante Exum may miss the whole season with a dislocated left shoulder, Miami’s Rodney McGruder had surgery on a stress fracture in his leg, Phoenix’s Brandon Knight blew his knee out in the summer, San Antonio’s Tony Parker (leg) is still several weeks from returning, Indiana’s Glenn Robinson III (ankle) may miss half the season and Milwaukee’s Jabari Parker (knee) has months of rehab work left.
“You worry about guys getting nicked up,” Memphis forward Brandan Wright said. “Lot of big injuries ... You want to just take care of your guys.”
Hayward had surgery Wednesday night and is likely to miss the remainder of the season, after breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle in Boston’s opener at Cleveland.
Livingston had no interest in seeing the replay of Hayward’s injury. He knows the road that awaits the Boston star.
“I’m not watching the video, but I’ve seen the pictures,” Livingston said. “Prayers go out to him. It’s going to be a long road back for him but if he puts his mind to it, is a man of faith, keeps good people around him ... it’s going to be a long rehab for him but he’s very capable of coming back and being the same player.”