Raptors coach: DeMarre Carroll got injured because he switched shoes
There are some people who will tell you it doesn't matter what you wear on your feet when you're playing basketball. To those people, we offer up the following cautionary tale.
Toronto Raptors wing DeMarre Carroll had missed three games with plantar fasciitis in his right foot before returning on Friday night in Toronto's win over the New Orleans Pelicans. That kind of foot discomfort is a nasty injury that can linger, and the source of the pain isn't always readily apparent. But according to Raptors coach Dwane Casey, Carroll's injury came as a result of a shoe change after training camp (via SportsNet):
“When he changed shoes for some odd reason after training camp, his foot just kept getting sorer and sorer and developed the plantar fasciitis,” Casey told hosts Bob McCown and Dave Perkins on Sportsnet 590 The Fan (on Thursday), adding that with some rest the hope is that Carroll will return soon.
We don't know for certain that Carroll's injury was in fact caused by the change in footwear. Though coincidentally, Carroll signed a contract with adidas before the season started, after his Nike contract expired (via SLAM Online, as pointed out by Reddit user tkfu):
“My ultimate goal is to have my own shoe,” Carroll told us last month at his house in Atlanta. “If I have to go to another company to do that, that’s something I’m willing to do because I’m a sneakerhead and that’s always been one of my dreams.”
Yet Carroll told reporters he didn't tell the staff about his pain (maybe in the hopes that no one would notice the injury?):
"It was one of those things, man, I didn't say nothing about it because, I'm not going to say nothing about it," the Raptors' starting small forward admitted just before returning from a three-game absence in Friday's 100-81 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
It took the convincing of the coaching and training staffs, along with Carroll's agent, to put together a plan for Carroll to take a week off before returning. He's back, for now. No word on whether he changed his shoes, though.
(h/t Reddit)
