The NBA's Iron Man sat out three times in his entire 16-year career, appearing in a record-setting 1,192 consecutive games from November 1986 to April 2001. Two of his All-Star selections came after the eye ailments, as he averaged 24.2 points and 8.6 assists from 2009 to 2011. He never suited up again without goggles, playing six more seasons in the NBA before finishing his career in Israel. It was also Stoudemire's key for returning to action.
"I had to pretty much lay down on the table for 22 hours a day for 10 straight days in order to reattach the retina," Stoudemire told David Letterman in 2011, via ESPN. Stoudemire's recovery sounds a million times more agonizing than playing basketball in a mask. Then in February, he was poked in the same eye by Al Thornton and needed to have surgery to repair a partially detached retina.
The first was a partially torn iris in his right eye from having it poked by then-teammate Boris Diaw during training camp. The six-time All-Star suffered two eye injuries during the 2008-09 campaign.
JARRED FELL TAPE FACE FULL
Even if goggles are less burdensome and uncomfortable than a full mask, Amar'e Stouedmire suffered through enough irritation on his road to the goggles to deserve a mention here. If you've ever had a strong feeling in the "Is a taco a sandwich?" debate, you might be willing to argue whether goggles should qualify as a mask. "For those of you, including myself, that thought Russell might need a couple of games to get used to wearing the mask, we were wrong," then-Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks said, per ESPN's Royce Young. He not only triple-doubled for the fourth consecutive game, but he had his most points (49) and rebounds (15) -both career highs at the time -of that stretch. Moreover, the masked Westbrook was just like the unmasked version. After sitting out a contest that Sunday, Westbrook was back in action the coming Wednesday. The collision left Westbrook with "a noticeable imprint on his right cheek," per the Associated Press. The injury was the result of friendly fire, as he fell and was hit in the face by teammate Andre Roberson's knee.
He did it in maybe the most Westbrook way possible, suffering a fractured bone in his right cheek while tallying his third straight triple-double in February 2015. Between his full-throttle style and seemingly superhuman stats, Russell Westbrook was always a likely candidate to join the Association's face-mask crew.
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