What do you give a man who has everything for his birthday?

Well, for legendary NBA Hall of Famer and Pacers' president, Larry Bird you get a present from your training staff in the form of the MRI results on Danny Granger's bruised heel. Bird celebrates his 53rd birthday today while keeping tabs on his all-star player's immediate health status. The team reports that the MRI results will be available tomorrow, but I'm sure the boss has already been apprised of the results.

Bird certainly won't want the MRI to reveal any surprises. The current diagnosis of a bruised heel is annoying and requires rest and treatment. The rest part of the equation includes staying off the foot as much as humanly possible, which is why Granger's appearance on crutches today and reports of his arrival back in town in a wheel chair shouldn't elicit an overreaction. 

The scary part of the story is the fact that they're verifying the bruise with an MRI, which raises some unease that maybe there's more than a bruised heel causing the discomfort. Here's a quick primer on a bruised heel which includes this general recovery information aimed at amateur athletes.

If you catch heel pain early and rest then it should recover quite quickly - within a few days. If you ignore the first onset of pain and the fat pad gets damaged beyond easy repair then this is a very difficult injury to treat. Rest means rest. There is no point you stopping running for a week if you put up scaffolding for a living and are on your feet every day. If you have to be on your feet then ensure you put a shock absorbing and cushioning heel insert into your shoes.

Let's just hope the MRI determines the amount of heel pad damage and thus rest needed to get Granger back on the court. The thing we don't want mentioned in the same sentence with Granger is, plantar fasciitis.

With plantar fasciitis we move past the bruise and onto strained tendons and bone spurs which would certainly ruin Bird's birthday.