Harrison Barnes Talked To LetsGoWarriors About His Toe (Foot? Leg?) Injury While In Shanghai

With all the talk on Twitter today about Harrison Barnes‘s injured toe (or foot? or leg?), I thought it would serve the public the best by posting my interview with him back on October 17th in Shanghai for media availability during the 2013 NBA Global Games. I integrated these quotes in Dan Devine‘s piece, Should We Be Worried About Harrison Barnes Mysterious Foot Ailment?

Today after the Golden State Warriors‘ last practice before Opening Night tomorrow versus the Los Angeles Lakers, Coach Mark Jackson announced that Barnes would miss the next two games — the Warriors travel immediately to Southern California to play against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.

I believe Rusty Simmons referenced our article and my interview (which was not published in audio format until now, see below for the YouTube link). By the way, I thought it was a thrill that Rusty probably gleaned some information from us from our site and used it in the SF Chronicle. I couldn’t feel more honored and it’s always a privilege to be in the same room doing my little bit of Warriors reporting alongside him and his long-time peers, like Marcus Thompson, Tim Kawakami, Lowell Cohn, and Monte Poole.

Incidentally, the interview (again, embedded below) is worth the listen if not for the comedy that ensues when I arrive. I actually first shook hands with Harrison, who recognized me from my coverage of him on Team USA Select this past summer (both of my articles were nuked during a DOS attack on our site, although we do have a backup and I haven’t had time to fish it out of the backup file and re-post).

But then this Chinese reporter sort of butted in.

Things went downhill after that as the reporter, who spoke very good English, tried to bait Barnes into saying he went to a nightclub at the Bund District during either of his stays in Shanghai this summer — Barnes had made a stop earlier to Shanghai with the NBA in August — but Barnes can hold his own in interviews.

Looking back, now that the injury has lingered, I kind of regret interrupting Barnes there for a moment to ask if his toe was near 100%, as Klay Thompson simply said Barnes would “be alright” a few days prior during the Beijing media availability.

In any case, with Barnes replying that his “leg” would be fine, one has to wonder just what kind of injury this is, as Jackson had previously announced it was a “toe” issue, according to reports by the major news wires (listen to the audio below, so you’ll know what I mean).

I think that fans and media just have to trust the training staff and respect Barnes and possibly the team’s wishes to not make a mountain out of a molehill. Of course, there’s always the chance that it’s more of a mountain. I hate to be cliche, but “it is what it is”. Look at the Andrew Bogut issue with the microfracture surgery. How quickly we forget! Perhaps the Warriors PR staff knows just how sensitive their community of fans and media can get over things. It kind of reminds me of my extended family — sometimes it’s best just not to tell them your dad had some minor surgery, so they don’t cause a big fuss over something that you know your dad will definitely get over and put in the past in due time.

Rusty put the situation in logical context:

When a player gets hurt, he has meetings with his agent and the team’s head athletic trainer, general manager and public-relations staff. They decide the best way to present the injury to the media, with the player having the final word.
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We’re kind of left to guess about what’s kept Barnes out of practice for more than three weeks, because the Warriors don’t allow their trainer or injured players to speak publicly to media. Even after being pulled aside before a recent preseason game, Barnes chose not to comment on the specifics of his injury.

I think that’s me! The one who “pulled (Barnes) aside”.

Poole discussed the ramifications of the injury on the Warriors’ rotation:

The takeaway? The Warriors will open this season of great expectations with their most explosive player unavailable, their budding star, the 3-point artist Curry, still looking for his shot (36 percent in the preseason), and a bench that is suddenly much thinner than it was at the start of camp.
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Because of that, the opening weeks of the season are going to be more challenging than generally perceived by outsiders, if not the Warriors themselves.

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