Rondo's elbow

Heroic?  A Soldier?  Rondo's fall onto an outstretched arm resulting in the elbow bending in a way it shouldn't certainly looked bad, but was it?

It's impossible to know how much pain someone is in, and for that matter, how much pain they're playing through.  We can guess based on how an injury looks or sounds, but we really don't know.  An athlete has everything to gain from appearing to play through pain.  Who doesn't love an athlete that's willing to sacrifice for the team?  He gets all the accolades, praise and cheers - or jeers if he decides to "sit out" what the public has diagnosed as a mundane injury (hello Cutler?).  So much is lost in communication from the athlete, to the doctor, to the trainer, to the reporter, and finally to the braodcasters.  Rondo was diagnosed with a dislocated elbow, which was subsequently popped back in to place.  He then returned to the game, miraculously carried his team to victory with one arm and gave Boston new life in the series...or so the story goes. 

What if the elbow was merely subluxed, or slightly dislocated, and not completely displaced from the joint?

Then we may have something like this:




She seemed to bounce back pretty quickly, huh?

We'll never know exactly.