Warriors release confusing Steph Curry injury update

Feb 6, 2023 - 2:57 PM

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There were two updates on the health of Steph Curry, who exited the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Dallas Mavericks after future Brooklyn Net Dorian Finney-Smith bumped into his left knee. Curry’s left knee was already sore from a collision Thursday night, but this contact exacerbated the injury. Shams Charania released a low-information, straightforward update.

Then, thirty minutes after Twitter was aflame with news of the Kyrie Irving trade, the Warriors released a highly-specific injury update about the results of Curry’s MRI.

The takeaway is that Curry actually injured his lower leg, not his knee as many observers and Twitter doctors thought. Let’s break down what these anatomical terms mean:

Superior tibiofibular ligaments

Anatomically, “superior” means “upper”, not dominant. Look, Steph Curry excels at a wide range of things, but historically, the ligaments in his ankle have not been stellar. These ligaments are located at the top of the foot, where the tibia and fibula bones meet the talus bone and form the ankle joint.

Interosseous membrane

“Interosseous” means “between bones.” The interosseous membrane is located between, you guessed it, the tibia and the fibula. It’s also known as the “middle tibiofibular ligament.”

So what does this mean? The X-rays were negative, which means Curry didn’t break a bone in his ankle. From what we can parse, this means that Steph Curry tore ligaments at the top of his ankle, which is colloquially known as a high ankle sprain.

A high ankle sprain is worse than a lateral ankle sprain. It’s hard to predict, but generally the recovery time is 5-6 weeks. For example, Harrison Barnes had a high ankle sprain in 2015, and the Black Falcon was out for 38 days. Of course, Klay Thompson played on a high ankle sprain in the 2018 Finals and Pat Mahomes just played the AFC Championship Game on a high ankle sprain, so your mileage may vary.

We aren’t doctors here at Golden State Of Mind, even if Joe Viray has a PhD. in breaking down game film. But we can estimate that an optimistic projection for Curry would still see him miss a month. That would mean roughly 12 games, all of which will be spent on the West Coast - either at home or in Portland or Los Angeles. If there’s anything fortunate about Curry’s two injuries this season, it’s that they’ve come just before a big block of home games.

Pessimistically, Curry could be out six weeks and miss at least 22 games.

The Warriors are 7-8 without Curry, though three of those games featured multiple starters sitting in road games. They’re 5-2 without Curry at the Chase Center.

The question is, why did the team release such a confusing update for a relatively common injury? It almost felt like a late Friday news dump, announcing as obliquely as possible that Curry was out a long time, when the NBA world was distracted. Were they trying to protect ticket sales on the home stand? Was the team trying to prepare fans for what will likely be a uneventful trade deadline? Or is something truly different about this Curry injury compared to every other high ankle sprain?

It’s a mystery. Though perhaps this is simply what it looks like when a PR team and a medical staff are light years ahead.