During your career to this point, some people have labeled you as injury-prone, but over the past two seasons, you’ve played more games than guys like Paul George, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard, to name a few. What do you say to people who consider you injury-prone at this point in your career? Danilo Gallinari: I don’t understand why they do that. Honestly, a huge problem was when I first came into the league as a rookie. I had back surgery, which was a big injury right away. When you come from Europe, and you have to show who you are right away, you get injured and get that stereotype on your shoulders. That was the beginning. But honestly, in my career, I’ve had small injuries that everyone has. I only had two big injuries, which was the back my first year and the ACL back in 2013 when I was in Denver.
I honestly don’t understand why I have this injury-prone stigma on my shoulders, but it’s just not true. It’s not facts. The facts are different. I’m very healthy, and I’ve been playing seasons with no problems playing almost every game. Most of the games I didn’t play is because it was a team decision to rest and not being injured.