Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum pushes return to December
Los Angeles Lakers centre Andrew Bynum is unlikely to return until December, the player announced Monday afternoon.
Bynum, 22, is reportedly struggling to recover from knee surgery last July and could miss more games than expected.
Bynum, who never skipped a game in the post-season despite a severely swelling knee, was originally scheduled to play in mid-November, but now the big-man feels he needs more recovery
time after being bothered with pain in several occasions.
"Yeah, it's a possibility," Bynum told the
Los Angeles Times. “I've got a little bit of pain still. It just depends on when I'm cleared."
The Lakers centre added he will undergo another examination in three weeks to see the status of his surgically-repaired knee.
Drafted 10th overall in 2005, Bynum is considered as the Lakers centre of the future” and probably the next face of the franchise in the post-Kobe Bryant era.
However, various injuries plagued Bynum, limiting him to just 150 regular-season games in his last three seasons.
Still, the Lakers are optimistic Bynum will overcome an injury-prone career and eventually emerge into one of the league’s dominant center.
In five seasons with the Lakers, the 7-foot, 285-pound Bynum averaged 10.3 points, 5.2 boards, and 1.1 blocks per game. He’s also shooting 56.8 per cent from the field and 69.2 per cent
from the free charity stripes.
Meanwhile, Lakers coach Phil Jackson is not happy about Bynum’s mindset about his ongoing rehabilitation.
"He's been saying that," Jackson told the
LA Times. "I don't know why he's talking about December. He can get weight-bearing activities started at the end of this month. Can you play in two weeks [after that]? Can you play in three weeks? Four weeks puts you at the end of November. So let's
just let it happen and not talk about what the timing is."
Jackson and the Lakers opened up their pre-season schedules against the up-and-coming Minnesota Timberwolves at the O2 Arena in London.
Bryant, who also underwent knee surgery in July, played only six scoreless minutes, as Martell Webster (24 points) and Michael Beasley (21 points) powered the Wolves to 111-92 victory
over the two-time defending NBA champion.
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