Pierce's injury could be very real

From: X Marks The Spot

Aside from the wack officiating in the first half of Game 2, the biggest controversy could be the truth behind Paul Pierce's knee injury. For the past 3 days, I have read so much about it that I don't even know what to believe anymore.
Some say Pierce faked the whole thing, from the crumpling to the floor in agony to the wheelchair shenanigans to his eventual inspirational comeback. They claim that somebody who suffered an injury like that (and required the afore-mentioned wheelchair) simply should not have been able to come back 2 minutes later. If it was that bad, they said, then Pierce should have been unable to play-hell, walk-for a week, at the very least.
I have to admit, even I was skeptical at first. I mean, knee injuries are no joking matter, and the Lakers have Andrew Bynum as proof of that. So anytime a knee is damaged, it truly is a cause for concern. Even Pierce said he heard a "pop", so it must be real. But when he returned quicker than lions pounce on fresh meat, I sided with the conspiracy thoerists. Maybe he was indeed faking it, trying to rally the crowd and his team and basically having his own Willis Reed moment. The fact that he led the Celtics to the victory and managed to score 22 points on the night. Then, he followed it up with bullish 28 points (along with the game-sealing drive) in Game 2 to put the Lakers in a 0-2 hole. Needless to say, Pierce was giving the skeptics (or as we call them: Laker fans) plenty of ammunition to doubt the validity of his knee injury.
But along the way, I felt Paris Hilton-like (as in "dumb", not "f**ked") because I wasn't exercising the most basic of my human abilities: my common sense.
It was entirely possible that it was just a scare; that Pierce was actually hurt during that moment yet it was nothing but a momentary pain. Maybe a muscle got bruised or some other thing. I surely can't blame him for hurting and still manage to accuse him of over-selling the injury, right? Right. I was convinced that it was nothing more than a minor injury.
But just a few minutes ago, I grabbed an old SLAM magazine to browse to while eating my dinner. It was the April 2003 issue, with the "Allen Iverson-American Hero" tagline on the cover. I decided to read the Elton Brand article inside. It was an interview conducted when he was about to enter free agency. Here is what was written regarding the Clippers' drafting of both Chris Wilcox and Melvin Ely in the first round (ooh boy, nice way of reminding me of how terrible the Clippers front-office is) of the draft.
From SLAM:
".... It was even part of the reason he (EB) didn't tell anybody about his injured knee during workouts with the U.S. national team before its ill-fated, sixth-place belly-flop in the World Championships. Eventually Brand couldn't keep the secret any longer. He had torn lateral miniscus in his right knee. Hello, arthroscope.
"I was coming up on restricted free agency, whatever that is, and I was nervous," Brand admits. "I tried to play on it, and I tried to say that it wasn't hurt as bad as it was. But when I had an MRI, we saw the tear. It made sense, because I couldn't run or jump off it. I wanted to play through it, though.""
He did, however, manage to recover in time for the following season. And we know he was able to lead the Clippers back (have they ever been there?) to the post-season in 2006. So really, it's not all bad news.
Now, I have no idea how Elton injured his knee, and I really can't say which injury was worse. In fact, there could be no injury at all. But I'm just putting out there the possibility that Paul Pierce could really be injured right now. Whether the rush of playing in the NBA Finals masks the pain or he's just gutting it out, we can't discount the fact that he may be playing on only one wheel.
For some other-worldly reason, I'm rooting for the Lakers right now. Still, I can't delight in the fact that a player is injured in the biggest games of his career. I know full well how much Pierce wants a chip, and to see it slip away from him due to a freak accident is not something I want to witness.
But maybe, just maybe, we should put to rest the accusations that he faked it. And maybe start considering (and admiring) the fact that even on a bad knee, Paul Pierce just continues to pwn the Lakers, two games deep.
Besides, wouldn't you want the Lakers to beat Boston at their best?