LAS VEGAS -- Gerry McNamara can’t catch a break. The former Syracuse star was one of the standouts of the 76ers summer league mini camp before spraining his right ankle with less than a minute left in a practice.
When McNamara went down, it looked much worse than it turned out to be, but the injury still sidelined him for the first two games of the Las Vegas summer league. On Sunday, the one day off the Sixers had from playing games, McNamara returned to practice.
Things began well, but midway through he sprained his left ankle. So instead of shooting free throws with the team, he sat with his feet in a bucket of ice by the end of practice.
Last season McNamara had a brief stint with Olympiacos BC in Greece. He then returned to the U.lS. and played with the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League.
McNamara felt he played well enough to warrant a call-up to the NBA, but it never came.
So now he was intent on proving that he could run the point for an NBA team.
“It’s unfortunate when a guy gets hurt in practice,” Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. “You can see he can play, but as I told the guys, there are 29 teams looking here and he’s not getting the opportunity to show what he is capable of doing.”
That’s a good point. Players in summer leagues not only try to impress their teams, but the other scouts as well.
Would McNamara ever have been a factor in the Sixers’ long-range plans? It’s not likely, but one never knows for sure until seeing in live action.
McNamara has worked hard to get to this point and now has suffered two ankle injuries. For a summer league hopeful, the timing couldn’t be any worse.
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Bad Breaks Result In Two Sprains For McNamara
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Marc Narducci is in his 23rd year as a sports reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The 2007-2008 season will be his first as the 76ers beat writer. For the past two seasons, Marc had been the backup writer for the Eagles. Over the past few years Marc covered the NBA, NHL and Major League baseball as well as writing on sports media. Prior to covering professional sports, Marc was a long-time high school sportswriter for The Inquirer's South Jersey section.
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