Aldridge Upbeat Following Surgery
posted: 8/23/2006 at 8:19 PM
On Wednesday, Trail Blazers' rookie LaMarcus Aldridge underwent successful surgery on his right shoulder in Los Angeles. The surgery was preformed by Dr. Neal Elattrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic.
It's always difficult to speculate on a timeline for recovery immediately following surgery, but the estimates are that Aldridge will be back and cleared for play sometime in mid-November. These estimates are always on the conservative side, and the hope is he'll be able to begin his NBA career on the court very early in the upcoming NBA season.
The surgery was performed to correct a small ligament tear in Aldridge's shoulder. There were reportedly no suprises during the process, and with this new procedure, it's often been said patients report feeling "better than new" following rehabilitation.
The process involves cutting the tendon where it's attached to the bone and drilling a hole in the shoulder. The bicep is pulled to the side and the tendon is then sutured into the hole. As complex as that sounds, the process only requires a small incision. Aldridge had developed bursitis as a result of the tear in the tendon, and that was cleaned up as well.
LaMarcus was accompanied in L.A. by his mother, and his girlfriend. Blazers' player personnel director Kevin Pritchard was also there, along with Blazers' trainer Jay Jensen. Jensen was by Aldridge's side throughout the entire surgical prodedure. Aldridge will return to L.A. in two weeks to have the sutures removed, and then will have his arm in a sling for three weeks. Within six weeks he should be close to having a full range of motion in the shoulder.
Pritchard said his player's attitude was "incredible," even immediately upon waking from surgery. "He was a little groggy when I first talked to him, but the first thing he said to me was 'when can I get up to Portland and get this thing back in shape?'," said Pritchard. "He's in great spirits and has that 'I'm going to overcome anything I have to' kind of attitude."
Dr. Elattrache is considered a pioneer in the field of orthopaedic procedures of this type, and rourtinely operates on professional basketball, baseball, and football players. "He's an incredible doctor," said Pritchard. "When we first learned LaMarcus would have to undergo surgery, we made sure we got the number-one guy in the country. That's Dr. Elattrache."
Aldridge plans on returning to Portland within the next two or three weeks to begin working with Jensen, and strength and conditioning coach Bobby Medina.
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I'm glad Aldridge is upbeat and remaining positive. I knew he would be. Personally, i'm really bummed he's going to miss preseason. I wanted to see what he could do when he wasn't playing in a guard dominated league. Doesn't look like he's going to get much opportunity to play once the regular season starts.
I have to disagree with you, though, Mike. I usually laugh at the impossibly hopeful estimated recovery times that are given following surgeries. Miles' knee wasn't good all season after the surgery, but he was supposed to make a full recovery in 6-8 weeks. I could list a million examples. Is it this particular surgery that has a good track record?
Well he should be upbeat. He plays for the blazers duh! But more seriously he shouldn't get much time maybe like 10-15 min a game. If he missed preseason they can't just throw him out midseason and hope he'll be great. Hes only a rookie till game one of his sophomore year. Aldrige is the man and a positive attitude is a good first step after surgery. Lets just hope no one else "hey pryzbilla" gets hurt to put pressure on him to rush his recovery.
How did LaMarcus get hurt? and when? during summer league?
Well, its a bummer, for I was looking forward to his development, which will now be put on hold.
For the naysayers on some of our other deals (La Frentz and Maggloire), this is the first example of our new depth at the 4-5. We lose a potential key component, but we have others that can plug the hole. We didn't have the depth there last year. Like mentioned earlier, he probably won't get huge minutes this year, but his delovepment time will be cut. However, being a rookie, he has plenty of time to make an impact yet.
All i hope is that we don't treat him like we did with jermaine o'neal, oops he's not scoreing double digets so move him...yea i'm still kinda bitter about that one...i think we really need to give the dude some time A) to recover, and B) to get some experience
GO BLAZERS!
It's great he got a first class surgeon. I only hope in his enthusiasm he doesn't try to do too much too soon.
Hows it going MB, Just wondering if you were going to post the courtside interviews? Also what do you think about miles being so hush hush and that he will only do his talking on the basketball court. Is that a good or bad thing for the team? THANKS!!
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