Fact: For a six-year stretch in the early ‘80s, the NBA used to give out an annual Comeback Player of the Year award.
It was eliminated after the 1985-86 season, in part because the top candidates weren’t just newly scarred players coming back from herniated disks and torn ACLs, but guys coming back from year-long suspensions under the league’s drug policy.
I suppose I can see why they ditched it. The spirit of the thing wasn’t supposed to be Best Player Who We Think Kicked His Coke Habit.
But it’s too bad they haven’t brought the award back in the last few years, in this healthier-living, my-vice-is-fruit-smoothies version of the NBA.