Amare's the next Penny Hardaway, you figure?

[MrChug]

There was a time when Penny Hardaway was considered the best player in the NBA...and this was AT a time when MJ was in the league. If Amare reaches those heights, I will make the comparison. He quite possibly could, so I'm intrigued. But as for right now I can't really see the correlation. Good topic, though...props.

[CosmicCowboy]

Okay I missed this. When did that happen? Amare's surgery was the same as Kerry Kittles. The type of surgery he had takes almost two years to rehab from. When Kittles had it done, he sat out almost two seasons. They drilled holes in the knee cap folks!!!

CWebb and JKidd never had micro fracture surgery during their NBA careers and different knee operations require different recovery times. Mostt knee surgeries are out patient things now; especially scopes and such. But micro fracture is intricate as and requires an extensive time to heal.

Huh????

They both had microfracture surgery and both had good seasons this year.

Did you actually watch either one play this year? I realize that Webber doesn't play the same physical style of basketball that Amare does but he looked damn good this year and put up Duncan type numbers in 75 games...(20/10/+21.44eff) CWebb looked awful for a couple of years after the surgery but looks to have made a complete recovery with physical skills comensurate with his age...

[Amare_32]

Amare will be fine. He even said on Suns.com that all the pain in his knees is gone. All that is left is rebuilding his leg muscles. He is planning on possibly playing in the summer leaque before going to Japan for the World Championship game.
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[747]

While I don't wish ill-will upon one of the best young players in the game, the injuries have been compared to each other...and we've all seen what happened to Penny's career.

Amare and Penny both had microfracture sugury, but the similarities end there.

In Penny's case, the microfracture was a last ditch attempt to save a knee that had been bone-on-bone for quite some time. Not to mention that (per Dr. Carter) Penny was unmotivated and lazy.

Amare has several things working in his favor. First is his youth, second is the size of the lesion, and third is the location of the lesion - which is on a non weight bearing part of the knee. Plus (again, per Dr. Carter) Amare has great work ethic and is motivated to pick up where he left off.

In regards to the other knee. Amare had a cyst removed. There was no defect in the knee.

All that said. The microfracture is a scary surgery. It is only natural to assume the worst, especially with cases like Penny’s. However, there have been success stories as well. John Stockton had microfracture surgery in 1997 and recovered completely. Not many people know this, but Kevin Johnson had microfracture surgery in the early 1990's, and (obviously) went on to have career years. Another example player who is having post-mictrofracture success is Zach Randolph.

It is a scary surgery, no doubt about it. But there have been success stories for more than a few players. I imagine that we will be adding Amare’s name to that list in the future.