Top 5 returns by NBA players after gruesome injuries

Kyrie Irving played his first game after shattering his knee cap in last season’s FinalsEveryone who follows basketball knows that it’s a very intense and demanding sport. The bursts of speed, the lock-ups in the paint and the sheer physicality of playing at a high velocity for even a few minutes are extremely taxing on the body.Add to that the fact that most NBA players are much larger than the average person, and you have a disaster waiting to happen at any moment. A little knowledge of the human anatomy will tell you the enormous pressure that joints, ligaments and tendons bear when going through the rigours of a basketball game.Well aware of all that, NBA players are very cautious in preserving their physiques and incorporate a lot of preventive exercises in their training, in addition to the normal regimen. But despite all that, the  nature of the game is such that a spur-of-the-moment reaction can topple all the precautions and preparation in an instant. Here, we take a look at some of the most hard to watch injuries that took place in the NBA and the resilience the players showed in coming back and continuing to make news for their gameplay:

#5 Rajon Rondo

One of the league’s best point guards is a trouble magnet and the same goes for afflictions, too. In game 3 of the 2011 Eastern Conference semi-finals, Rajon Rondo fall down in a tangle while guarding another player with injury troubles, Dwyane Wade.

Rondo, entwined with the Heat star, would instinctively try to cushion his fall with his left arm, and the elbow would dislocate instantly. Rondo would be helped off the court. He would return with his form unblemished, though, and continue to rack up the triple doubles.