Antonio McDyess: The Warrior Within

As many of us Pistons' fans have heard, Antonio McDyess has quite the knack for getting injuries these days. That is not to say that he doesn’t play though. He is quite the warrior and guts it out through every game. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press said that "seeing McDyess after the game in the locker room, you would have thought he had just fallen off of a cliff."

Ellis went on to say, "He had bags of ice on both of his knees, another around his ribs. Oh yeah, and he still has a sore right thigh and a wrapped pinky after he had it popped out of place in the game Sunday against the Clippers."

                                                       

Coming into the game yesterday against the Clippers, Antonio wasn’t even sure if he was going to play.

“I really thought this game I wasn’t going to play because when I woke up yesterday, it was ridiculous bad,” McDyess said of his ribs. “Today it was all right. It’s crazy, but it felt pretty good. I was surprised, and then another injury comes along.”

Teammate Allen Iverson has had his share of injuries throughout his career so he would know what McDyess is going through. But when he saw his finger get popped out of place he thought that McDyess was done for the night.

“When I saw that finger I knew he wasn’t coming back into this game here,” Iverson said.

But McDyess wasn’t about to miss the rest of this game. He came back and played with the same, if not more, intensity that he had before the finger injury.

“Out of nowhere he comes walking back onto the floor,” Iverson said. “I said to him, ‘You ain’t tougher than me.’ He kind of said, ‘No, I am not,’ but he sure showed a lot of toughness right there.”

Head Coach Michael Curry was glad to have the Pistons emotional leader back on the floor. During McDyess’ absence the Pistons went through a lull in their scoring and intensity on the court.

“I think when 'Dyess hurt his finger I kind of thought we went through a lull right there,” coach Michael Curry said. “If you have a guy who is kind of the emotional leader, when he goes down, everybody is uncertain about how bad it is…he just plays. The guy wants it bad, and he wants to finish his career these last few years with a chance of winning big and winning a title.

Talk about a championship caliber player. Playing through four different injuries now, Antonio McDyess sure is the emotional leader of this Pistons' team.