July 2014

Sports medicine accessory companies seem to have gotten the formula down:

1.  1)      Develop an elegant-looking product along pseudoscientific principles.
2. 2)      Pay athletes to wear it on television
3. 3)      Let the anecdotal evidence, rather than science, sell the product.

This formula has worked especially well for companies like Phiten, whose website vaguely claims that its AQUA-METAL technology “enhances the user’s quality of life,” but more heavily promotes fluffy YouTube testimonials with big-name ambassadors like Josh Beckett, Justin Verlander, and Curtis Granderson.

Possibly the biggest recent success with this simple formula is KT (or Kinesio) tape, an ultra-durable elastic tape, which, according to the company website, provides lightweight support for your muscles. It seemed like Kerri Walsh of the U.S. beach volleyball team was the only one wearing the tape in the 2008 Olympics. By the 2012 games, everyone from divers to javelin throwers were wearing it. Still, doctors are reluctant to offer full support for the product and a meta-analysis of research on the tape turned up inconclusive.

The formula has most recently worked for Mission Athlete Care’s Enduracool towels, whose “radiator-like fiber construction circulates water molecules and regulates the rate of evaporation.” After this infomercial featuring Dwyane Wade and Serena Williams, the Enduracool is popping up on the shelves of seemingly every sports store this summer.

However, as Dr. Souryal hypothesized in a recent broadcast, it probably just works because it’s a wet towel.  Dr. Souryal also commented “We are very gullible consumers in general and particularly gullible when it comes to pseudo-medical products.”  Someone once said that “there’s a sucker born every day.”  This fact is very true when it comes to over-the-counter medical products. Now I am not saying that everything is worthless, however unless there is science behind it, it most likely will not work any better than a placebo”

There’s no signs that says magnets work. There’s no science that says crystals work. There’s no science that says the towels can cool themselves.”

Someone else once said “that a fool and his money are soon parted”.

I say “do your homework and save your money.”

Ultimately, athletes are a superstitious bunch. If you can convince them that a product will give them an edge over the competition, then they can convince themselves that it works. If they really believe it’s working, it probably will work. This is the placebo effect in action, and frankly, it is the most convincing science behind any of these products.

The key here is the placebo effect. If a player believes an accessory will work, it will probably work. If it doesn’t hinder performance, why stop using it?

When you discuss an NBA center’s legacy, more often than not the discussion leads to his feet. Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan will forever be remembered for their balletic footwork. Others, like Shaq, Yao, and Bill Walton, will be remembered for the multiple foot surgeries which curtailed their otherwise dominant careers.

For former consensus number one draft pick Joel Embiid, the discussion started with his Olajuwon-esque footwork. It’s hard to watch his pre-draft workout in Los Angeles and not gush at how quick, yet deliberate his every step is:

Unfortunately for Embiid, who just had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot, Yao and Walton’s doomed feet have entered the discussion. He is now projected to fall out of the top three in the draft. Scouts and GMs figure that if he’s already had a foot surgery a few months after turning 20, then his career will inevitably be doomed by more and more surgeries.

But is it rational for the Cleveland Cavaliers to pass him up with the top pick? Maybe not.

The biggest difference is that Yao and Walton had their respective surgeries much later in their careers. As sports medicine surgeon Nick Grosso points out for USA Today, Embiid’s bones are still growing, making it much more likely that he experiences a full recovery and will not need another surgery.

Still, he will need those feet to support his 7-foot frame against the hardwood floor for every game and every practice of his career, so it’s reasonable to assume that the pick will reduce his overall mileage. It doesn’t help that he has lingering back problems and is rumored to have low bone density.

What makes the 2014 draft unique is that there is no huge drop off between Embiid and the three (Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Dante Exum) that were expected to follow him.

Also, Cleveland is pretty much the only team that really wanted to make the playoffs last year. After a series of questionable lottery choices after Lebron’s departure, they don’t want to look dumb. They certainly don’t want to be like the Portland Trail Blazers in 2007, who, despite injury and unequal leg length risks, took Greg Oden at number one over Kevin Durant and Al Horford, both of whom were pegged as “sure things.”

Hopefully, years from now Embiid’s name will be more associated with Hakeem than Yao. It would be a shame if we NBA fans were deprived of Embiid’s potentially transcendent skill-set.