The teams played as though they had just met that evening, defense was mostly
an afterthought, and screens were only sporadically set. On most evenings a
contest between the Bay Raiders and SF City in San Francisco’s Pro City
league would have been a non-event.
But there was a reason to focus on during Monday’s game. The attention
of the fans centered on the blue knee brace worn by Cal star Leon Powe.
“He can’t get off the ground,” said one fan.
“He’s running like it hurts,” said another.
“He better not be out there hurt if Ben Braun is around,” replied
the first commentator.
“He’ll be out of this game right away.”
“Stupid old Don Johnson (the coach of Powe’s Bay Raiders team)
wouldn’t know if Leon was hurt or not,” observed another self-appointed
medical expert.
Every step Powe took was graded by someone in the crowd on the basis of what
it revealed about the progress (or lack thereof) of his rehab from knee surgery.
It is the million-dollar question for Cal Basketball fans. Has Powe’s
surgically repaired knee strong enough to allow him to return as the player
he was in 2004?
The answer is… the envelope please….
Not quite yet.
In Monday night’s game Powe at times looked tentative, he showed little
explosiveness, and he did not demonstrate the quick first step needed for him
to fully utilize his talents.
The good news was, he scored 30 points, dominated other players with his upper
body strength, and gave as good as he got in a titanic battle with USF big
man Darrell Tucker.
Of course Powe dismissed concerns about his knee.
“It feels good. It doesn’t feel bad. If it felt bad I wouldn’t
be out here.”
And there are of course a number of completely logical explanations for his
lack of explosiveness, such as still being rusty from the extended layoff,
the two steps forward one step back nature of rehab, and the fact that his
rehab schedule has not been altered to accommodate his participation in the
Pro City League.
“I ran today,” he said. “If I can run and then come out
here and play with no rest, it must be OK.”
Powe is a tireless worker, a legend for doing 200 push-ups a day as a high
school sophomore when he decided he must get stronger, though there has been
speculation that working too hard after the original injury is part of what
aggravated his condition and necessitated the additional surgeries.
There are no guarantees the quickness and explosiveness come back until they
come back, so for now it’s a wait-and-see situation.
For his part Powe welcomes the pressure of being pivotal in putting Cal Basketball
back on its feet after a couple of disappointing seasons.
“I like pressure. A person who doesn’t like pressure shouldn’t
be playing this basketball game.”
Notes: Fellow Golden Bear and Bay Raider Devon Hardin brought the crowd to
its feet with a thunderous dunk at the end of the game. Ayinde Ubaka, a member
of the Bay Pride squad, was in the stands.
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