After 35 years of service, Dr. Robert Marmer is retiring as the Hawks' ophthalmologist Sunday, with a short ceremony before the 2 p.m. game against the Detroit Pistons.
Since 1975 he has watched apprehensively as flying elbows and poking digits threatened Hawks eyes. Occasionally he has been called upon to render emergency assistance, as when Josh Smith took a finger to the peepers last year during a playoff game against Orlando.
An examination at halftime revealed Smith had a corneal abrasion, which is incredibly painful, but not necessarily vision-threatening.
With a few anesthetic drops at halftime, “it allowed him to continue to play,” said Marmer, 74, of Sandy Springs. “He was able to play the whole game.”
"He's always been there to help keep our guys on the court," Hawks forward Marvin Williams said. "He's also been one of the biggest Hawks fans around. I can't remember a time not seeing him over at his seat cheering us on."
In basketball, the close quarters, physicality and lack of protective equipment make injuries inevitable. Eye injuries are particularly troubling, in that a recurrence can multiply the seriousness of the damage.
"In football you don’t see very many eye injuries," Marmer said. "In basketball their faces are exposed. It's more of a contact sport than people realize, you see bodies flying all over the place."
Marmer has attended almost every game since the fall of 1975, tending to the Hawks and their opponents. In the NBA, team eye doctors take care of home and visiting players. During the March 6 game with the Knicks, Marmer treated Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony after his left eye was dinged.
The players are “multi-million-dollar assets,” and they want to protect those assets, Hawks head athletic trainer Wally Blase said.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, there are 40,000 eye injuries a year during sports and recreational activities, with basketball and baseball causing the most injuries. In the most startling recent example, Braves minor league manager Luis Salazar lost an eye after being hit by a foul ball during a spring-training game earlier this month. Protective eyewear would prevent most injuries, according to the academy.
In basketball, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the most high-profile player to use protective goggles. But few players use such a precaution, except when recovering from an injury, such as new Hawk Kirk Hinrich.
"If you ask Kirk, he'd probably wish he didn't have to wear them," Blase said. "He's at a point where if he gets poked in the eye again it could be detrimental."
Marmer would like to see a policy encouraging eyewear "in all basketball -- college, pros and kids."
Currently that issue hasn't gained much traction.
Ralph Swearngin, executive director of the Georgia High School Association, said the incidence of eye injuries is too low to warrant such a policy. Chad Starkey, a professor at Ohio University, has been compiling statistics on injuries in pro basketball since 1988 and says there is no recorded incident of a player losing an eye because of injury, though many injuries have led to surgery.
His view of the utility of requiring eye protection is philosophical. "It's a tough call," Starkey said. "Should you be required to wear seat belts? Hopefully you will never need them, but if there’s a wreck, you're going to wish you had them on."
Starkey said high schools should at least inform their players about the benefit of eyewear, so kids and parents can make an informed decision.
Marmer, who is 5-foot-6, and his wife, Natalie, who is 4-foot-10, have spent many evenings in the land of giants. Though retiring from the Hawks, Marmer will keep active in his private practice, where he will have few if any seven-foot patients.
He feels taller already.
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