Since Enes Kanter played this entire game with a painful shoulder, it’s impossible for me (a narrative-starved pseudojournalist who is tasked with writing something meaningful about him) to not draw comparisons to Michael Jordan’s infamous “Flu Game”. So that’s what I’m going to do right now. Compare MJ’s “Flu Game” to Kanter’s “Shoulder Game”.
One could even say that Kanter’s “Shoulder Game” is more impressive than the “Flu Game” because Kanter was really, legitimately injured. There was doubt he would even play. MJ was just hungover from partying the previous night, which is the kind of self-inflicted adversity that the tomes of legend would rather not include. The adversity that Kanter overcame was of the external variety, making him a heroic figure akin to the heroes of Greek mythology.
When Kanter dunked early in the game and then hung on the rim using his injured shoulder, I thought that might be it for him. He winced a bit and I thought he was just trying to stay calm even though he had just pulled his arm bone right out of the socket. But he was in the game right after that and even managed to score some points (twenty more points, to be exact), so it either wasn’t so bad or he was playing through considerable amounts of pain in order to give his team the best chance to win.
Unfortunately, the Blazers squandered Kanter’s heroics, so it’s unlikely that the Shoulder Game will enter into NBA lore like the Flu Game did. Luckily I have my own lore that I keep up-to-date, so whenever the NBA decides they would like to use my more inclusive lore instead of their stupid lore, I’ll be ready. My lore includes things like “Jabari Revenge Game After Getting Traded”, “Larry Sanders Triple-Double with Blocks”, and “Jason Smith Hitting Eight Midrange Jumpers in One Half”.