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Alex Len defends Maryland’s medical treatment on his ankle

Alex Len

Maryland center Alex Len (25) shoots a free throw during the first half of an NIT tournament basketball game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Tuesday, March 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

AP

Over the weekend, a seemingly innocuous interview between Alex Len and Grantland’s duo of Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose became a big deal when Len said that he played “half of the season” hurt and that Maryland didn’t do an MRI on his ankle until after the season was over.

That would have been a problem. A school ignoring a player’s injury to try and win NIT games is not a good look.

But a Maryland spokesperson told NBCSports.com that Len had x-rays in March that came back negative and that he was held out of practice for the final month or so of the season. His injury didn’t become severe until after the season had ended. Mark Turgeon reiterated this point in a conversation with a Maryland beat writer this week.

And now Len himself is trying to downplay the hullaballoo surrounding his injury, making it clear enough to Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk that he has no problem with how his injury was handled:

“A stress fracture is hard to discover sometimes,” Len said. “Because we did x-rays when it started hurting, but the doctor didn’t see anything. Sometimes, you can’t see anything. It just shows up after two months.”

He’s right.

Stress fractures are hard to find.

And Maryland did do an x-ray and they began treatment when he started complaining about his injury.

And they also held him out of practice afterwards.

Maybe this was all blown out of proportion in the first place?

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.