Tuesday, March 10, 1998
No pain, no game
FEATURE: Star forward plays with a chronic back injury to help
lead team to NCAA tournament
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Contributor
The pain shoots up her back each time she boxes out for a
rebound. It throbs every time opposing players check her with their
forearms when she tries to post up in the paint. Even when she does
simple things like washing her face in the morning, her back
aches.
So it is no wonder that Maylana Martin’s coach and teammates on
the UCLA women’s basketball team are shell-shocked that Martin, a
sophomore forward, has been able to average 19.7 points and 7.9
rebounds a game. Those numbers place her second in the Pac-10 in
both categories, despite playing with a sore back the entire
year.
It becomes even more remarkable when you take into consideration
that Martin, because of the pain from her back, hasn’t been able to
practice much with her teammates this season.
"I think she’s having an unbelievable year, considering she’s in
a great deal of pain," said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier.
Olivier’s team is currently 19-8 overall, 14-4 in the Pac-10, and
headed for the tournament on Friday to play Michigan – largely
because of the play of Martin. "Considering her back has been
bothering her since our first game of the year, I think she’s
sucked it up for our team and is doing a great job."
"It’s really amazing," sophomore center Janae Hubbard said, who
has been nursing a fractured foot all season, and knows what
competing despite injury is like. "I don’t know how she’s been able
to do it."
Both Olivier and Hubbard concur that it takes a special person
to play through the pain that Martin does each and every game, let
alone score 20 points and pull down 8 rebounds.
"Because of her focus and her intensity, I think that she gets
into the game, and doesn’t feel the pain as much as some people
would," Olivier said. "It takes a special person, a special player
to be able to do that."
The pain in her lower back from two degenerated discs, Martin
believes, is from the excessive pounding that comes from playing
basketball year-round in 1997.
Martin went to Brazil to play for the U.S. Junior Championship
team in the summer after completing her freshman year at UCLA.
After Martin helped the U.S. capture their first-ever gold medal
at the World Championships, she went to Europe with her Bruin
teammates to play some more basketball and, upon arrival back in
the United States, went straight into conditioning for this
collegiate season.
So it was this continual pounding – with no breaks in between to
rest – that has resulted in two degenerated discs in her lower
back.
Martin relates the pain to the aches and pains one gets from the
flu.
"But sometimes it will go down the back of my legs, and that’s
like shooting pains," Martin said. "Almost like needles. When it
hurts real bad, it’s like when you get a hard muscle cramp."
Martin says that the pain from her back has gotten gradually
worse during the season.
"I know at Stanford I took a lot of hard hits," Martin said. "I
took one where I was bent backwards. I was playing defense at the
time and they just ran right smack into me. I think that’s what
really started hurting (my back) again because it was getting
better for a while. It’s gotten gradually worse the last couple of
weeks."
The pain has gotten so bad in recent weeks that Martin has
decided to forgo playing for the U.S. Junior Championship team and
conditioning with the team this summer. Instead, this off-season
she will strengthen her back in the weight room and get plenty of
rest so she will be at 100 percent for next season.
Although the pain has been eased by the fact that she is scoring
20 points, grabbing 8 boards a game and her team has been red hot,
Martin has had to work for every basket and rebound. Her back pain
has been frustrating because it has stopped her from doing simple
things both on and off of the basketball court that she has
normally been able to do with ease.
"Its really frustrating," Martin said. "It’s not like an elbow
or a thumb injury where I can baby it. It’s my back. Everything I
do hurts it. When I post up their arm is right there on where it
hurts. It’s really frustrating because I don’t have a lot of
strength in it either.
"So shots I would normally make or stuff I would have normally
been able to do easily, I can’t do now as easy as before my injury.
Now I have to work a lot harder."
Olivier says Martin’s back injury has hurt Martin’s transition
game the most.
"I think running the floor was one of her strengths as a
freshman because she ran the floor better than anyone I’ve ever
seen as a post player," Olivier said, who played with such Hall of
Fame post players as Denise Curry and has coached greats like
Natalie Williams. "This year I think she runs the floor very well
but not like she did as a freshman."
So how in the world has Martin been able to not only be at the
top of the Pac-10 in scoring and rebounding, but also to improve
her numbers from last year – numbers which earned her Pac-10
Freshman of the Year honors – with a sore back that has plagued her
the entire year?
"Erica (Gomez) is a huge part of that," Martin said about her
increased statistics. "Having a true point guard makes a big
difference, because last year Tawana (Grimes) was playing out of
position at the point. This year, Erica likes to run the floor as a
point guard and give it up in transition. When I’m out there I
usually get it from Erica if I’m open. I think that gives me a
couple of more buckets a game."
Martin also attributes her great numbers despite her pain to the
fact that she has been mentally playing like she is not hurt.
"If I show that I’m hurt then subconsciously I’ll feel more
hurt," Martin said. "Like when you tell a little kid, ‘You’re not
hurt, you’re not hurt’ after they fall down then they don’t cry. So
I think if I tell myself ‘You’re not hurt,’ I can play and just
suck it up."
Martin has tried to hide her injury from her other teammates so
they won’t worry about her during the game. But despite Martin’s
efforts, other players on the team have seen what she has to go
through each and every game.
"You can see it, she doesn’t have to tell us," Hubbard said.
"Like in the ‘SC game two weeks ago, she went up for a shot and she
came down and fell right on her back. You can just see it on her
face that she was in a lot of pain. Also when they try to double
team her and the person behind is constantly hitting her from
behind you can see it on her face then that she is in a lot of
pain.
"Most of the time she plays through it," Hubbard continued. "She
never looks at Kathy (Olivier) and says ‘I’m in pain, take me out.’
She doesn’t really complain, she just plays through it."
Olivier feels Martin has been able to be in the top three in
scoring and rebounding in the Pac-10 despite her injury because the
coaching staff has held Martin out of many practices this season,
allowing her to rest her back.
But where would the Bruins be if Martin wasn’t able to suck up
the pain and had sat out much of the year?
"Oh man, that is something I don’t even want to think about,"
Olivier said, whose Bruins finished in third place in the Pac-10,
and have been recently selected for the tournament largely because
of the play of Martin.
"Just because she has always been there for us. She’s obviously
our go-to person right now. And someone people look for for
leadership. I couldn’t even think about life without Maylana. I
think we could survive because we are a very deep team but I don’t
think we could be doing the same things we are doing now."
Case in point: the Jan. 10 game against Oregon on MacArther
Court.
With the game tied at 72 at the two- minute mark and the crowd
in a frenzy, Martin wanted the ball. Martin would go on to score
four straight baskets carrying her team on that sore back of hers
to a 80-75 victory over the Ducks.
"She made herself available. And she literally put the team on
her back and said ‘C’mon.’ We couldn’t have won that game without
Maylana, that’s for sure."
Teammates agree that the UCLA women’s basketball team would be a
different ball club without the presence of Martin.
"It would be weird not to have her on the court," Hubbard said.
"Not to have her presence, not to have her rebounding, not to have
her scoring, and not to have her leadership."
Oliver would go on to pay Martin the best compliment that Martin
could ever receive.
"I think she will be up with the best of them to ever play at
UCLA," Oliver said. "With Denise Curry, Ann Meyers and Natalie
Williams. By her senior year she will definitely be in that
class.
"She’s one of the best I’ve seen. She’s so agile for a post
player and she’s so athletic for a 6’3" girl. There’s not a lot
that Maylana Martin can’t do."
Including playing with an injury.
Playing successfully with an injury definitely sets Martin apart
from the rest. For her not to complain about it, however, and
instead suck it up for her team shows a lot of character.
"It takes a special person to play through pain and at the same
time not let people know about it," Hubbard said.
"I mean, to go play through the pain that she’s in and not to
show any signs that you are in pain … That shows someone that’s a
real strong person."