Portland Trail Blazers: Hand Broken and Season Shattered for Joel Przybilla

Hands down, this has to be the worst loss of the season for the “Baby Blazers.”

Not the 72-65 slog witnessed by the 19,980 fans that were in attendance at the Blazers-Spurs game on Sunday.

No, it is the loss of Joel Przybilla for the remainder of the season.

The Portland Trailblazers were only five games away from seeing an NBA trainer get down and kiss one of his player's rear end at center court.

Screw t-shirt cannons. Nuts to the blimp that only drops prizes to sections that contain attractive women.

That would have been something that got the fan base roaring.

Joel Przybilla had made a wager with NBA trainer Jay Jensen. If Przybilla could play the entire season Jay Jensen would have had to get down on his knees, after the last game, and kiss Pryzbilla’s butt at center court.

Now, because of a freak play, one of the last things that Blazers fans had to look forward to is now gone.

Przybilla had been a rock this year, especially as of late. He has had 11 double-digit rebounding games since the March 1st, culminated by a dominating 26-rebound night against the Clippers.

He was averaging a career high in rebounds per game, almost three rebounds higher than his career average. His free throw percentage was up 31 percentage points from a measly 37 percent during the 2006-2007 campaign.

He had been stepped on, elbowed and mugged and he was the only Blazer that kept coming back from this abuse.

The one constant through a season that saw the injury bug spread the equivalent of West Nile plague through the Blazer team was Przybilla, until this point.

Now, he follows in the paths of players Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden, and Martell Webster, who lost time this year due to injury.

He deserved better. He not only deserved that kiss on the butt but a pat on the back from Blazer fans as well. 

He hustled. He sweat. He bled. Now, he’ll sit.

And I know it is not the way he wanted it, but it is a well-deserved rest for the big man.