One of the girls on the team yesterday went down with a knee injury in the first half. She'd torn her ACL in her left knee and had surgery on it years ago. Last night, she went down scrambling for a rebound and said she'd felt the right one "pop." Anyone who has had an ACL injury knows that a pop is dangerous news. She sent out an email today saying she found out it's an ACL tear. Bad news. Worst case scenario. Cecelia and I had sat out with her when she went down, helping her to the sidelines and getting her leg propped up. Cecelia's had 2 knee surgeries and I've had 5, and apparently this girl's had 1. Basketball's really rough on women's knees because we have wider hips which angle our femurs inwards, making the knee ligaments susceptible to injury, particularly torn ACL's and meniscuses. I used to be the high-jumping rebounder/shot-blocker, but when you get up that high, you have to come down and often, you come down on someone's foot. Or someone knocks you in the air and you land wrong. After all the surgeries, the compromise I made with myself was that I wouldn't get aggressive under the basket, or jump for rebounds. Nowadays, the ball goes up and I get out of the way, even though my favorite things are soaring for rebounds and blocks. I stay close to the ground. But last night, to fill the void left by her, and because my shots weren't falling, I was going for the blocks and rebounds, driving to the basket straight at defenders. It felt great to be playing aggressively and in the air again, but I knew every time I landed safely, that I was lucky.

I don't know...hurt my knee and my time in Seattle's done. Instantly. Plus, ACL's a hard surgery. You basically have to relearn how to walk.

Maybe it's not worth it, Julia. Think about it.