View full sizeBrandon Roy will have surgery on both knees next week.The Trail Blazers and All-Star
have decided on a medical course of action for his ailing knees:
Arthroscopic surgery. On both.
Blazers orthopedist Dr. Don Roberts will perform the procedure, technically called knee debridement, next week in Vancouver. Recovery from such a procedure can take anywhere from three-to-six weeks, but Blazers general manager Rich Cho said the team is not setting a timetable for his return besides a generic hope.
“Hopefully he comes back this season,” Cho said.
The Blazers elected to take this medical course of action after exploring the possibility of meniscus replacement surgery last week. Roy, Roberts, Cho and team trainer Jay Jensen flew to San Francisco to meet with Dr. Brian Cole, a leading expert on articular cartilage repair and the team doctor of the Chicago Bulls.
But after evaluating Roy, Cole determined the procedure would not be beneficial.
“It might help a regular person, but it’s never been done on an NBA player while he’s playing,” Cho said. “He didn’t feel like a transplant was going to help.”
So the Blazers moved on to Plan B, which does not carry any guarantees.
Debridement is the process of removing dead tissue or foreign material from and around a wound to expose healthy tissue. The Blazers hope that smoothing out the bone surfaces and tissue fragments in Roy’s knees will allow him to return the court with less or no pain.
But it will be the third surgery Roy has had on each of his knees, for a total of six. His left was first operated on in when he was in high school and again in August 2008. His right was operated on as a junior at the University of Washington and last April when the Blazers were entering the playoffs.
Roy, one of numerous Blazers to miss extended time because of
over the past two seasons, returned eight days after the last surgery and played against Phoenix in their first-round playoff loss.
Cho acknowledged Thursday that Roy’s upcoming procedures might not help.
“This is really a temporary fix,” Cho said of the arthroscopic surgeries. “Nothing is permanent.
And it might not help. We have to try it and see how he feels.”
Roy has played in 23 games this season for the Blazers, averaging 16.6 points, 3.3 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game. He started to experience pain and swelling two weeks into this season and things took a dramatic turn for the worse on Nov. 13 in New Orleans, when he hobbled off the court and directly to the locker room during a game against the Hornets.
Roy sat out for 12 days before returning Nov. 26, when he scored 27 points in a loss against New Orleans at the Rose Garden. There was more hope during a Dec. 10 win at Phoenix when Roy had 26 points and six assists.
But as the season progressed, it was clear Roy would continue to be a shadow of the player he once was as his lack of athleticism and explosiveness prevented him from showcasing the skills that made him a Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star. Roy was temporarily shut down on Dec. 16 and then, on Dec. 30, the team announced he would sit indefinitely.
Roy has not spoken publicly since the day of the announcement, but said the following Thursday in a release from the Blazers:
“I’m trying to do the best thing I can to get back on the floor. We’ve been able to get a number of different opinions and it’s something we’ve decided.”
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