Sixers Beat Reporter Says He Assumes 'Surgery Right Around The Corner' For Andrew Bynum
By Spike Eskin
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It's hard to take too much out of what Andrew Bynum says anymore. Timetables, bone bruises, six-step rehab programs, lateral movement, it all starts to blend together after a while.
That said, here we go.
Bynum spoke to the press before Monday night's Sixers win over the Orlando Magic. He said he expects to play for the Sixers in February, but he didn't sound what you'd call confident about it. Bynum said the recent Synvisc injections he got in his knees didn't provide much relief. So what makes his knees worse?
"Jumping ... impact," Bynum said. Jumping is a regular activity in basketball. "Just from jumping, lateral stuff, defensive slides and getting low. It's almost like a range issue, like a range-of-motion issue." (thanks to Chris Vito for the transcription)
So what exactly is the concern?
"My doctor said it's fear of a big bone bruise, so we need to nurse it back up to playable conditions without having a setback or creating a bone bruise."
Goodness.
So he still expects to come back in February, but he's afraid of another bone bruise, and jumping and impact make his knees hurt.
Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Bob Cooney joined 94WIP's Michael Barkann and Ike Reese to talk about Bynum. He didn't sound optimistic.
"The lateral movement still isn't there. Step-slides, defensive slides as we all know, that's not working," Cooney said. "He said getting down in a defensive stance hurts. Certainly not positive signs and the more you think about it, I don't see how coming back in the month of February is very realistic."
"I came away last night saying it wouldn't surprise me if we got word sometime soon---and I know the Sixers won't do this and I know Bynum won't do this. It's a PR thing. I know they won't come out and say you know what, he's not going to play this year. It's going to keep stringing along, stringing along, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't make it back on the court.
"And I could be wrong, because we have been left in the dark mostly on this, but I could be wrong, but I just didn't get a great feeling about it last night. Like I said, it's not just this specific thing that we are talking about. This guy has very bad knees, it appears."
"I would assume surgery has to be right around the corner."
Yes, it sure does appear.
