Toronto Star -
The last time T.J. Ford was on a basketball court he left it on a stretcher, the memories of past injuries washing over him, concerns about his future as a man and a father clouding his mind.
"I don't think anybody can give me advice because nobody is actually going through what I'm going through," Ford said here yesterday. "Nobody's experienced it as many times as I've experienced it. People just there for me, giving me support, they can't tell you to either or because they don't know."
"It's a tough situation, but I think I will definitely bounce back."
The "it" is the lingering threat to his long-term health every time he takes a jolt to his spinal cord. He has the degenerative condition known as spinal stenosis which is a narrowing of the spinal column around the spinal cord. He is more susceptible to the sort of "stinger" pain that radiates throughout his body after a jolt to his back.
That's exactly what he felt after a collision with Josh Howard in Dallas in November and exactly what he worried about after Atlanta's Al Horford knocked him to the court earlier this month.
"Yeah, it scared me," he said. "I always said I never wanted that to happen again. I didn't care whatever else happened but never that. I put a lot of pride in not having to do that again."
"To put a scare in my family in general. We play so many games, and they're not there. Imagine your mom or your dad seeing that on TV. It's tough, you know."
