04/15/2009 - 08:20
Back in the Lineup, My Vote (Kobe or LeBron?) for MVP, and the Playoffs
by Tyson Chandler

I'm so excited to get back on the floor. I've been rehabbing and getting ready for the last few days. We spent the last day trying to figure out if I was going to play in the last game or not and we decided today that I'm going to play.

I'm still obviously not 100 percent. I may be about 70 percent. It's been really tough.

After I went back out, I obviously wanted to come back as soon as I could. It has just been a really tough injury. Normally when you sprain your ankle, you just damage the ligaments or stretch the ligaments. When I sprained mine, I damaged the tendon, so I had fluid in my tendon. When you damage your tendon it takes a long time to heal. It's a longer process.

TIME WILL HEAL THE WOUNDS
It's not a situation where I can damage it more by playing on it, but a lot of times you just can't play on it. It won't allow you to because your ankle won't function normally. We've waited as long as possible to allow it to heal and allow it to get better. But obviously we don't have the luxury of time to wait as long as it needs to heal to play.

I wanted to try to play the last two games of the season, but as it is I'll just be playing in the last game. The coaches and trainers said I shouldn't play in Monday's game, but I feel like I really need to play in the last game because I want to get my timing as close as possible and as good as I can possibly get it before the playoff run.

Tonight I'll probably only play 20 minutes and just try to get my timing, play as hard as I can and try to get mentally prepared for the playoffs.

Rehabbing it really is all about the time that you take off to allow it to heal and strengthening it while I'm resting it. When I come back and play it doesn't allow it that chance heal. You play on it, you aggravate it, it starts to swell and you start the process all over. That's the problem we've been facing.

When I came back after the Sacramento game and I played in those nine games, the swelling came back. The last three or four games that I played in over that stretch I was playing basically on one ankle. I didn't hurt it or anything it was just from running and playing and getting down in a stance. Not only is it more painful, but I'm not able to contribute the way I'd like to out there.

MAKING IT LAST
I'm hoping that it will be able to last longer than it did the first time. I'm hoping that we'll be able to monitor it and get me rest so that I can go throughout the playoffs.

The injury affects my ability to jump and my lateral movement. I'm used to being able to run, jump and block shots, but I noticed in the Atlanta game that when I felt like I was jumping, I wasn't really getting off the ground. Even jump balls, normally I win jump balls, but on the ankle I don't have the same explosion cause basically I'm jumping on one leg. I did that through that entire stretch I played through.

I haven't practiced with the team; I've just been doing running, rehab and conditioning. I haven't even had an opportunity to practice or play one-on-one or anything like that. Tonight will be my first time playing with contact since I went out.

DEALING WITH THE FRUSTRATION HASN'T BEEN EASY
It's been so frustrating to sit there and have to watch my team battle and me not be a part of that. Especially because I'm really vocal on the court and I may seem emotional to those watching, the tough part is really trying to keep my mouth shut and help the guys. Being confident. I'm the type of person who wants to try and motivate my teammates, but it's a situation where I don't want to say anything because I'm sitting on the sidelines. If your teammates are out there in a fight and you're on the sidelines, you can't be barking out instructions because you're not involved. That's been really tough for me.

Dealing with it everyday, I've noticed myself getting irritated when people ask me “when are you coming back.” Just fans or anybody, even when I'm walking down the street, because I want to be out there playing so bad and every time I hear that, it's just a constant reminder that I'm not out there helping the team.

It's been really tough just to sit there and have to watch. Everything about it has been difficult. I hate sitting on the sidelines.

CREDIT TO COACH SCOTT
I've talked to coach about it the whole thing but I haven't really talked to the guys because like I fell like I'm not out there with them when they really need me. It's hard to watch David and Chris put up these huge numbers and we still lose. It's hard to accept because I feel like if I were out there, we wouldn't be losing these games.

I've talked to coach about it and expressed my frustration. I don't talk to the players because I know they want me out there. Even though coach wants me out there too, I feel like I've been able to talk to him about it more because he's been trying to plot a strategy of what I was going to do.

PROPS TO THE TRAINERS AND MY SUPPORT SYSTEM
I rehab every single day to try to strengthen the ankle. The tough thing is you have to let it rest as well as strengthen it. So what we've been doing is being cautious. I have to watch how much you run on it, how much I jump, how much I strengthen it because we don't want it to get sore or swollen.

The trainers have done a good job of monitoring me day-by-day and pushing me, but pushing me to whatever my limit is.

That's the stuff we do at the gym during practice hours. When I get home I just do calf raises and things like that to keep it strengthened. At first I had to stay off my feet, but then it got to a point where it was better for me to walk around a little bit. I just do whatever I can do to help.

HANGIN WITH SLIM
The blessing about this has been the chance to watch my little boy grow day-by day and that's been great. He's changing and I look forward to coming home every day to see what he is doing.

EXACTLY WHAT WE EXPECTED OUT WEST
Going into the season, we pretty much knew the conference was going to be like this. All year long coach has been saying we have to win certain games because if we don't, down the stretch it's going to come back to haunt us.

We're going through that right now. There have been a lot of games during the course of the year that we gave up and we lost that we should have won. Unfortunately for us, we've also been dealing with injuries for most of the year and if we were healthy we also would have won a lot of those games.

It's going to be like this for the next couple years. The West is so packed and so talented. You have young teams that are getting better and growing and it seems like teams are just getting better year-by-year.

I feel like we can beat every team out there. I don't fell like there's a team out there we can't beat, when we're healthy that is.

Every playoff team is a tough matchup. The Lakers right now have the advantage above everybody and they're playing the best basketball. In a playoff series you never know, you can't predict. With the way the Lakers are playing, obviously they're going to be everyone's favorite, but anything can happen.

24 OR 23? PICK A SIDE
I feel there are only two real choices for MVP.

It's tough because Kobe has led his team to the top of the Western Conference again and my whole thing is, you have to knock off the champ, just like a boxing match.

I said earlier that my MVP vote, if I got one, would go to who ended up having the best record between LeBron and Kobe. Kobe has totally transformed his game and brought his teammates up, giving them confidence. He has taken the Lakers to a whole other level.

If you take Kobe out of the equation, a lot of those players wouldn't be the players that they are. That's what makes an MVP for me.

The same thing goes for LeBron. LeBron has not only lifted his franchise but he's uplifting a whole city and he's changed the face of that entire organization. He makes every player around him confident. Mo Williams playing alongside him has become an All-Star. He changed the franchise and that makes an MVP too.

During the course of the year, when everyone has been talking, I felt like everybody was leaving Kobe out of the discussion and Kobe has pretty much done the same thing as he did last year. He's had an incredible year, leading his team to the top of the west and they've been the only team to go into Cleveland and beat LeBron.

It's tough for me, but I guess I would give LeBron the edge because his team has the better record. If the Lakers had a better record than Cleveland, then Kobe would be the MVP.

LEBRON AND CP3, REINVENTING THE GAME
LeBron is just so explosive. He reads the floor well. He's like a combination between Jordan and Magic. He's got the big body and he passes the ball like Magic and his athleticism is just crazy.

When I played that summer with the USA team, I would watch him play defense on one end and then just turn it out and be the first guy down at the other end. It was like a train moving at a fast pace. You couldn't get in front of him because you're not fast enough and even if you did, you couldn't stop him. Physically, it's just unbelievable to watch him.

CP is like that for a guard. I've been getting a chance to watch CP from the bench and talking to teammates about him and we were talking about how one of the toughest things about CP is trying to stop him on the fast break. He's moving so fast and then he's so incredible with the ball that he'll attack one of your shoulders at the last minute and you can't do anything but either freeze up or foul him. You let him go by you or you foul him because he's so fast that there's nothing else you can do.

People don't realize Chris is very strong and that's why it's very hard for other players to try and steal the ball from him. On top of that he's so crafty with the ball. He has the ball on a string. He doesn't waste any motion or sit in front of you and play around.

HANDICAPPING THE HORNETS
Right now, I feel like we have a great chance in the playoffs. If this team plays as well as we can, we'll have a great chance because we're a year wiser and have playoff experience.

This year, it's just game-by-game.