MINNEAPOLIS -- The timing of the knee injury to Minnesota Timberwolves' guard Rashad McCants made most people shudder. McCants sees it as "very fortunate" that he had microfracture surgery now rather than later.
Rashad McCantsGuard
Minnesota Timberwolves
After a rookie season in which he finished so strong, scoring in double figures in his last 12 games, McCants was ready to be relied heavily upon by the rebuilding Wolves next season.
But he started to have pain in his knee during rigorous offseason workouts in May and had surgery June 16. It was the same surgery that caused Phoenix star Amare Stoudemire to miss all of last season and has wreaked havoc on the careers of players like Kenyon Martin and Antonio McDyess.
The loss is a serious blow to a team looking to return to the playoffs after a two-year hiatus, but McCants remains optimistic.
"I feel very fortunate to get it done and over with," a surprisingly upbeat McCants said Thursday in his first public comments since the operation. "They fixed the problem. As long as it heals, I should be able to bounce back stronger than I was."
Coach Dwane Casey said McCants was a little down in the dumps in the days leading up to the surgery, but the 14th overall pick in last year's draft oozed positivity on Thursday, an outlook he attributed in part to a brief stay with star and friend Kevin Garnett after the procedure.
"I'm fine," McCants said with a smile. "It's a better light now. I see things better."
Garnett welcomed McCants into his home in suburban Minneapolis after the surgery while McCants waited for his mother to get to town.
"Being great friends with Kevin Garnett is more of a bonus than anybody knows," McCants said. "He took care of me for a couple of days. That was more heartening for me than you could ever imagine. ... I appreciated everything he did for me. It was kind of like a dream come true. It's just special."
Now comes the hard part.
Timberwolves officials expect it to be at least six months before McCants can return to the court, and the team is being extra cautious considering what happened to Stoudemire last season and McDyess before that.
Stoudemire missed the first 66 games of this season after having the same surgery on his left knee. He tried to come back but lasted only three games before being shut down again with problems in his right knee, which developed while he was rehabbing the more serious injury to the other knee.
"The past guys who have had [microfracture surgery] and didn't come back as strong tried to rush back," McCants said. "The mind can play tricks on you in rehab and you can get hurt."
McCants said he hoped to be back with the team by mid- to late December.
"You can only take it in stride," McCants said with a shrug.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2504871
I hope he gets back well...
