Metta World Peace's injury: How 6 weeks became 12 days

Now that we know the Celtics are heading into the Playoffs and will most probably avoid the Heat until ECF (if they can reach that stage), it is only natural to take a look at the state of our eternal enemies. They are a half game behind the Jazz who also have the tiebreaker, so things are way more exciting for them than they are for us.

Meanwhile, Metta World Peace had a torn meniscus injury, and he was supposed to spend 6 weeks on the sideline after a successful surgery. Well, the surgery was too successful apparently, so he's returning back to the lineup in just 12 days.

I know that NBA teams are not the most reliable ones about injuries, and I know that some players heal faster than usual, but COME ON! How can 6 weeks turn into 12 days? There are only a few explanations which are listed below in decreasing likelihood:

1. The Lakers lied about the recovery time: Now, MWP actually had surgery, so it's not a case of "he has a sprained ankle so he'll be ou... Oh wait, it is not that serious." His meniscus was actually torn. Yet it is possible that the 6-week timeline was quite an exaggeration on the Lakers' part. One evidence is MWP's later-deleted tweet that said "First ever knee injury. Recovery time hopefully is a week and a half." A Google search also reveals that "[e]lite athletes return to practice within one to two weeks after surgery," so there is that. Obviously I don't know who Dr. Ben Wedro is and how much grain of salt I need when relying on the www.medicinenet.com website, but still.

Are the Lakers playing mind games with their opponents? Well, given the state of their Playoff chase, it's quite possible.

Speaking of Playoff chances...

2. The Lakers are really desperate: The Lakers would rather sacrifice Metta World Peace to push for the Playoffs than wait for him to be fully healed to compete later on. That's quite a turn of events for a Lakers team that held really high hopes for the season. For those whose poison is schadenfreude, this is an awesome scenario.

3. Metta World Peace is not human: Well, that has already been established with plentiful evidence: He thinks at a highly, um, different level and cannot relate to regular folks like us.


However, I didn't think that his mental abilities also translate into physical abilities. Well, I was wrong. He's clearly from another world: Who has ever reduced and injury recovery time by 70%? Only Metta can do that.

That brings up an important question: Should non-humans be allowed to compete in the NBA? I don't know. That's a delicate ethical question.
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