Insider: What Steph Curry thinks his knee or lower leg injury might be

[Exclusive for subscribers first]

As is usually case whenever I obtain inside information, it drops in my lap. In this case, we were on the usual game livestream “second screen” (our version of ManningCast, if you will, embedded below), when suddenly one of our regulars chimed in from the arena, postgame.

They happened to be with Stephen Curry, who had earlier gotten his knee hit when McKinley Wright IV drove on him in the second half of the Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors game, as you all should already know (article continues below the video):

Before we get to the rest of that postgame story, let me just announce that this is a subscribers-only article. I will only reveal the specific injury that Curry told his inner circle he thinks this one might be. I will then reveal the full article to everyone the day after. That gives me the opportunity to provide something exclusive to my paid subscribers.

In more general terms, JaMychal Green already told ABC News Bay Area’s Chris Alvarez that, “He gonna be okay. That’s the first thing that I asked (him).” Not quite the level of euphoria that Leandro Barbosa’s “We gonna be championship” provided, but we’ll take it. Here’s the video of that:

So without further ado, the specific injury that Curry thinks this might be is…

…a bone bruise.

You can actually see this answer on our livestream (previously embedded above), in the Live Chat. The progression of that conclusion is rather fun. It started with Steph telling people, “It was on the side of his lower leg,” then “He’s walking fine and it feels better, just a hard hit,” then “Now he has ice on it (his knee) and it’s wrapped,” and then “He doesn’t think it’s serious,” and finally the “Might be a bone bruise, guys.”

Now, just what is a bone bruise and how long will it take to get back from that?

UPDATE: I asked Dr. Nirav Pandya what the prognosis would be for a bone bruise. He replied, “As long as it’s not in a high stress area, these typically resolve in 1-2 weeks. It’s mostly about pain relief / inflammation control. That would be good news!” [This paragraph was added at 7:37AM on Sun 2/5/2023.]

The good news is, with the expectation of the diagnosis being a bone bruise, it’s not an ACL or PCL tear, especially without evidence of corresponding pain. Here is more info on bone bruises, via Google: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314427

The article says a bone bruise can “last from days to months… They usually heal in a couple of months, although larger bone bruises may take longer… Bone bruises can heal in as little as 3 weeks or take as long as 2 years to fully repair.”

Of course the bottom line is, this “might be a bone bruise” is just conjecture, an educated guess, even if it is coming directly from Steph or whomever told him that. He will get an MRI, presumably as soon as possible; NBA players typically have to wait until the next business day for those. Only after the MRI can a doctor give the official diagnosis.

I’m going to assume either Dr. Rick Celebrini or another doctor at Chase Center, where Curry got a postgame X-ray (which was reported as negative for a bone fracture), told him they think it’s a bone bruise.

👍👍💛💙