Mike Conley had 6 different injuries by season's end
The most obvious of Mike Conley's many injuries, playing with a broken face to finish the playoffs, was surely the most painful.
Conley's highly publicized and, quite frankly, incredible return after just three games off to have facial fractures surgically repaired was one of the biggest storylines of the first two rounds of the postseason.
With his Memphis Grizzlies having been eliminated at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, Conley opened up about all of the less public injuries he was dealing with by the end of the year.
There are a lot of them. According to Conley, he was suffering from:
- The facial fracture
- A strained neck
- A left wrist sprain
- A right wrist sprain
- Lower-back tightness
- A right foot sprain
How does a point guard even play with two sprained wrists? Conley also worked through two sprained ankles earlier in the season, injuries that aren't believed to be 100 percent healed.
Despite all of this, Conley still played relatively well against the Warriors, averaging 13.4 points, 5.8 assists and 1.6 steals, though he shot 38.3 percent from the floor. Those numbers aren't as impressive as his regular-season marks - 15.8 points, 5.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 44.6 percent shooting - but considering he was playing with one foot, weakened wrists and a mask, it's remarkable production.
With Conley serving as a terrific avatar for the low-drama, grit-and-grind Grizzlies, the team would reportedly love to get his signature on an extension this summer.
However, the unfortunate realities of the collective bargaining agreement won't allow for that, as Conley stands to make far more as an unrestricted free agent in 2016 than he could by signing an extension now.