Jameer Nelson: A torn labrum

It is official, the Magic will be without All Star point guard Jameer Nelson.

This is a huge blow to Nelson and Orlando. Nelson was in the middle of a career season, finally getting full reign over the Magic's offense. And Orlando was in the middle of its best season since 1996.

Those visions of an NBA title dancing in your head should slowly dissipate with time.

So what exactly is Nelson out with?

Nelson tore his labrum. The labrum is the muscle around your shoulder that helps stabilize the joint that holds your arm into your shoulder (if you know anything about anatomy, you know that the shoulder joint is a junction of three different bones). Read more about it at WebMD.com (I do not know if Nelson has the specific tear mentioned in that article, but it has a good definition of what Nelson actually injured).

His options are to immediately go into surgery, causing him to miss the remainder of the season, or try to rehab it and play through the injury.

Either way, Nelson will need surgery.

There is a history of players rehabbing this injury and playing. They are well documented by writers covering the Magic. He can hope to recover from anywhere between 3-12 weeks if he decides to go the rehab option.

So even then it is uncertain if and when Nelson will be back. Even with offseason surgery, Nelson will probably miss the beginning of training camp as surgery typically takes four months to rehabilitate from, according to various reports.

Even if Nelson opts to go with rehab, the Magic will need to find a more permanent solution at point guard.

Orlando was not going to win a title this season. The team is missing something (what that is, I do not know. But look deep down in your heart and tell me this team can grind it out in the playoffs and win a title... I did not think so... unless they are really hot).

Losing one of your top three players does not help. But this is a solid team still and I would not expect Orlando to fade away and lose the division or fall out of the Eastern Conference title picture completely. This team has a very good starting lineup and can still score with the best of them.

We will see how Orlando moves forward from here.