Chris Wilcox: The same sad story

It was recently announced that Chris Wilcox will miss about a month with a thumb injury, and it seems like we have heard this before. Before he missed the entire season last year due to his heart condition, he was already struggling through calf and shoulder injuries. He has always carried around the dreaded "injury-prone" label, and while some of it is not his fault, his time in Boston has not deviated from his career injury levels.

I want to first establish that I do not blame Chris whatsoever for his heart condition, and that I will not count the games he missed due to that. But even before the heart condition was discovered on March 14th, he had already missed a whopping 13 games due to various ailments.

Other than the season opener this year, he has played in every game up til now. But with the injuries starting again, you feel a sense of déjà vu. If you look at his career, Wilcox has played in 65% of all possible games. Fellow "injury-prone" big man Andrew Bynum? 68%. The numbers do not lie.

This article is not to blame Wilcox (other than mentioning the fact that some of his injuries last year were from being out of shape). It is instead to lament the struggles of Chris, who I very much like. I believe Wilcox is a very nice role player, who brings a ton of energy. He is not the most skilled player, but he knows what he can do and does not try to do superfluous things. But the first thing a player needs to contribute is to be on the floor, and Wilcox just cannot seem to do that.

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