It's not looking good for Amare

[The_Game]

no one will know until the season starts and we are a couple of months in to be honest...

if he doesn't come back to what he was it is bad for the game...but there's still a good chance he will

you have to hope for the league in general he will

[Zunni]

He may be an effective player if he works VERY hard (debatable, since the coach and FO are already calling him out about his rehab) but everyone here can state with certainty that he will NEVER be the same athletically, EVER.
Are you a Dr.? Do you perform this surgery? Do you even know what it is? The knee is essentially bone on bone when the diagnosis is made, so they drill MANY tiny little holes in the facing bone surfaces, and hope for the generation of scar tissue that will do part of the job of the missing cartilage. Can you name one high wire act that came back with full athleticism? No? Then STFU.

[boutons_]

I really think Amare doesn't have the head and heart, esp with what we've heard fom the Suns staff in the past few days, to move from being born a very gifted athlete who played at basketball because he could, to a much diminished athlete who must :

1) learn how to be a complete basketball player, learning to play basketball in all its aspects, the fundamentals, with the considerable remains of his talent, while

2) working a long, slow, tortuous, excruciating rehabilitation.

[LaMarcus Bryant]

I think it would be funny to poll suns fans now, if they believe Amare's game was pure athleticism...i remmeber when they were a legit rival they all seemed to think he was some sort of complete player.
bah.

[Zunni]

I really think Amare doesn't have the head and heart, esp with what we've heard fom the Suns staff in the past few days, to move from being born a very gifted athlete who played at basketball because he could, to a much diminished athlete who must :

1) learn how to be a complete basketball player, learning to play basketball in all its aspects, the fundamentals, with the considerable remains of his talent, while

2) working a long, slow, tortuous, excruciating rehabilitation.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Only part of this rests on healing, and that will only go so far. The rest is up to him, and it's going to be a mental grind. He's never been known as a gym rat/effort guy.

Oh, and yes, 9 rebounds is TY for someone of his size and athleticism. On a per minute basis for his last pre-surgery season, that isn't much better than Rasho's career rate, .247 to .238. That sucks, and speaks to a general laziness and lack of effort.

[angel_luv]

I'm new here but came over from (koff)SR(koff) .

Welcome.

[boutons_]

Amare did obviously develop a very nice mid-range jumpshot and somehat improved FTs seen first in 04/05.

In his first 3 years, he didn't improve his RB beyond 9 RB/game. Not a bad number, but he was stuck there, couldn't get into the elite ranks of season double-double.

His ball handling and passing were poor, less the 2 AST/game while 2+ TO/game.

For his size and jumping, he wasn't much of a shot-blocker or defender, although he seemed to like to block Tim's dunks in very dramatic, recorded fashion.

He was primarily a scorer with power dunks and then added a jumper. Not really a complete player, but he could kill you with his scoring in 04/05.

If he can't score with the overwhelming athletic intensity, can he raise the rest of his game to compensate? I wish he could, but I bet he won't.

[Zunni]

The jumper was also effective, because players backed off in terror of him driving and posterizing them. I think he'll be played more straight up now. He'll have to work on a quicker release, and possibly a higher release point.

[lrrr]

The reason people bring up comparisons is that it is more reliable than a doc's 'Prognosis'. If you pay a doctor enough money, what, you reckon he will say, you have no chance of returning to your former self? The medicos are being optimistic. And 100%, what does that mean? You will be able to walk around without pain and perform everyday tasks? Maybe people who have had microfracture surgery can recover to that level, but I bet there haven't been any orthopaedic surgeons who have played 82 games a year in the NBA.

Hence, the comparisons, Doctors can lie, but statistics tell a more compete story. Yeah yeah, he is young, but isn't it frightening that it happened when he WAS SO YOUNG? To presume a complete recovery is based on the assumption that NOTHING ELSE BAD WILL HAPPEN, but his other knee is already bummed...

[cornbread]

if he doesn't come back to what he was it is bad for the game...but there's still a good chance he will

I admire your positivity and hope but the chances are not good. IMHO they're pretty slim.
I hope that Amare is already working on his fundamentals.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

CONCLUSIONS: At an average of 37.1 months (range, 36 to 38 months) follow-up, our prospective, randomized, clinical study in young active athletes under the age of 40 has shown significant superiority of OAT over MF for the repair of articular cartilage defects in the knee. We found that only 52% of MF athletes could return to sports at the preinjury level. Limitations of our study included a small number of athletes and a relatively short (3-year) follow-up. A long-term follow-up is needed to assess the durability of articular cartilage repair using these methods in young active athletes.

Sounds like he should have had the other surgery, not microfracture.

[wildbill2u]

He may be an effective player if he works VERY hard (debatable, since the coach and FO are already calling him out about his rehab) but everyone here can state with certainty that he will NEVER be the same athletically, EVER.
Are you a Dr.? Do you perform this surgery? Do you even know what it is? The knee is essentially bone on bone when the diagnosis is made, so they drill MANY tiny little holes in the facing bone surfaces, and hope for the generation of scar tissue that will do part of the job of the missing cartilage. Can you name one high wire act that came back with full athleticism? No? Then STFU.

Over the years I had gradual deterioration of the cartilege to the point where I had bone-on-bone in the knee. Came down with a rebound one day and the bones slid off each other with a sound like a breaking branch, stretching the ligaments that held them in place. I can't even begin to tell you how bad that hurts.

I don't see how he will ever be able to regain that athleticism and psychological freedom if the cartilege wasn't replaced, but From one of the other posts, I gather that the type of repair they tried on Amare wasn't the replacement cartilege technique. Too bad.

[coopdogg3]

My mom is a RN and has said that surgeons tend to be optimistic. Usually overly-so. They are extremely ummm ... we'll call it "confident" in their abilities. They have to be, really, you don't start cutting into a person unless you're confident you can make it better. So I don't know that the docs are lying to Amare, they're probably just placing too much faith in their ability to heal. And giving Amare a pretty rosy diagnosis.

[howbouthemspurs]

When you hear crying like someone is dying, Thats Amare!
I sprang my finger while I was typing, oops! Thats Amare!
So much Hyping but now hes Gryping, now Thats Amare!
I crapped my pants and killed Geraldo, Wait, that doesnt rhyme! THATS AMARE!!