Dwight Howard admits he played through torn MCL, meniscus injury in playoffs

Lamentations of the WCF aside, these injuries bear watching as we creep into the 2015-16 season and as Howard starts creeping into his 30s.

Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard said he played with a torn MCL and meniscus in last season’s playoffs. If Dwight Howard should miss any of the season due to injury, the Rockets are banking on Capela being a solid candidate to fill the superstar’s shoes.

The Golden State Warriors went on to win the series in five games and it is unknown how much of an impact it would have had if Howard was fully healthy as the Warriors were clearly the better team but it certainly makes you wonder. And when we lost, it was like, I gave everything I had.

“I was basically playing with a torn MCL and meniscus”, Howard said. The Rockets said Howard suffered a sprained knee injury.

But he’s recently revealed exactly why he struggled so badly – because his knee was totally busted. Still, McHale paid the price as his career was cut short after just 13 seasons, and he still walks with a noticeable limp now, almost three decades later.

Howard returned later in the game, and continued to play throughout the series.

By the time the Rockets’ Monday practice ended and Kevin McHale could order his young big men to run extra sprints around the Suns’ practice court, he might have been happy just to see players working that hard without restrictions or new injury issues.