Bynum to miss Lakers' training camp
Andrew Bynum, the injury-prone starting centre for the Los Angeles Lakers who is currently recovering from knee surgery, will miss out on the start of training camp, set to begin Saturday.
The 23-year-old underwent the surgery in July not long after his Lakers won their 17th NBA championship after beating the Boston Celtics in seven games. The surgery was necessitated when
Bynum suffered a cartilage tear in his right knee during the first round of the play-offs. His effectiveness was limited as a result and he had his knee drained three times over the course of the play-offs. Playing only 24.3 minutes per game, Bynum averaged
8.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in the Lakers’ play-off run.
On Wednesday, the Lakers announced that their 7ft centre has not sufficiently recovered to participate in training camp.
"He has been doing therapy with [trainers] Alex McKechnie and July Seto since having surgery, and will continue to do so," said team spokesman John Black.
The Lakers will continue to monitor his development, saying that he could be back on the court directly after training camp.
Bynum has drawn criticism from the media for failing to work on his game this off-season. According to critics, he delayed his surgery because it conflicted with his summer plans to take
in the World Cup in South Africa and vacation around Europe. He went into surgery on 28 of July, 10 days after the original date.
Bynum will be entering his sixth season in the league after being drafted by the Lakers in the first round of the 2005 NBA draft. Although the big man shows signs that he could be a dominating
force, injuries have severely set back his career. The 2006-07 season is the only year in which Bynum played all 82 games.
His right knee has been the problem. During the 2007-08 season, he partially dislocated it, leading him to play only 35 games. The very next year, he suffered a torn medial collateral
ligament also in his right knee, limiting him to 50 games.
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