Portland Trail Blazers: Mike Barrett's Blog

Aldridge to Undergo Surgery

posted: 8/21/2006 at 10:02 PM

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The second-overall pick in June's NBA Draft, LaMarcus Aldridge, will undergo minor surgery on his right shoulder on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The Trail Blazers will officially release this to the media on Tuesday morning.

Last week I did a story on Aldridge's progress as he continues to get ready for his first NBA season. I left out any information on the injury because not enough was known about it at that point. But, after discussing the matter with doctors, and Trail Blazers' trainer Jay Jensen, Aldridge, and the team, decided a small surgical proceedure would be necessary to correct a minor ligament tear in his shoulder. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Neal Elattrache in L.A. on Wednesday.

Aldridge averaged nearly 12 points and 7 rebounds during the Las Vegas Summer League in July, but complained of pain in the right shoulder when his workouts resumed in Dallas following summer league.

He has continued to workout, concentrating more on abdominal work, and lower-body conditioning. He isn't expected to have a full range of motion in the shoulder by training camp, but total recovery time will be determined following the surgery on Wednesday.

I'll update you on his condition when I learn more. I stress that this is simply a small ligament tear, and that the surgical proceedure was viewed as the quickest and easiest way to correct the problem.

6 Comments:

mohammad said...: Chuck Swirsky is better than you!

Go to my blog

http://mohammadsports.blogspot.com/; 11:00 PM
mrblazer said...: Well, Aldridge came with the injury prone tag. Injuries really are the only thing i can see standing in the way of Aldridge becoming at the very least an excellent contributor. Although it is troubling to hear that he hasn't even gotten to training camp of his rookie season without having to undergo a surgery, i think we can still remain optomistic.
As i've commented before in this blog, i believe work ethic was one of the biggest pros in going after Aldridge in the draft. When he suffered a season ending hip injury his freshman year in college, he made full use of his time, still, to work on his game. He worked relentlessly on changing his shot during his rehabilitation. His shot mechanics now are beautiful, and he improved his game immensely for his sophmore season. Aldridge will be just fine.

PS Mike, i've complimented you on your blog several times, and i don't think there is any question about what i think of your work in general. I wouldn't be keeping it real, though, if i didn't point out that there have been many elephants that have walked by since i've been participating in your blog, and you never comment on them. Although i can understand why you would want to avoid some of them all together, i think at least a simple acknowledgement of them from you could help alleviate some of the frustration they cause us fans. If you try to pretend some of the biggest blazer issues don't exist, it's only natural for us to began to question your sincerity.; 1:27 AM
Hap said...: jeesh...hey MB, I think you're the greatest thing ever, but I have compiled a list of 37 individual things that you need to improve on. These things are listed in chronological order too.

just kidding around mr blazer. And you too, MB. ;)

well, it sucks that LaMarcus is going under the knife, but things WERE going a bit too smoothly for blazer fans. this, and Zach apparently being a bit of a twit, gives us more to talk about.

I suppose.

Just breath deep, medidate and listen to " 'till I die". We're just a small part of the grand scheme of things. Don't sweat the small stuff.

enough of that clap trap! :)

anyways MB, are you going to do interviews/updates via mp3's, on the site during the "downtime" for Courtside?

hap; 9:33 AM
The Hyper Bully said...: Mike,

Tim and I would like to thank you again for your gracious invitation to join you in the studio last night. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it was one we won't soon forget. Especially when Mike Rice leaned over and asked me, "What was Canzano's first name again?"; 9:40 AM
Jackson said...: This could be the second coming of Sam. At least they went out and got some help in the low post before the season started.; 12:38 PM
mrblazer said...: I'm a constant complainer, Mike, but what about the interviews from the show you promised?; 2:34 PM