Shortly after acquiring Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic at the trade deadline, the New York Knicks announced that OG Anunoby would miss 3 weeks after undergoing a successful surgery to remove a loose bone fragment from his right elbow.
Before the news broke out, sports injury expert and certified athletic trainer Jeff Stotts, who operates the website instreetclothes.com, explained Anunoby’s injury.
Bone Spur Irritation
Anunoby’s injury started with an elbow inflammation which worsened into a bone spur irritation.
According to Stotts, a “bone spur, or osteophyte, is often the result of a repetitive motion that places an undue stress somewhere on the body. The constant friction can irritate a bone in the area and, over time, additional bone tissue is created to combat and manage the stress. The newly formed osteophyte then acts similarly to a doorstop, limiting range of motion and irritating the neighboring soft tissue structures like nerves, ligaments, or muscles.”
Stotts added that Anunoby’s injury is more common in baseball than in basketball. However, he explained that “the repetitive motion of shooting a basketball can lead to the development of osteophyte(s) in the joint.”
Anunoby, one of the league’s best catch-and-shoot players in the league, was prone to this injury.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Anunoby tried resting, which Stotts described as “conservative treatment” for such an injury. The best route is to have elbow debridements to remove bone spurs or loose bodies in their elbow which the Knicks forward eventually did.
Recovery Timeline
Stotts listed several past NBA players who also suffered the same injury.
Three of them were Knicks players — Carmelo Anthony, Wesley Matthews and Bill Walker. Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson were also on the list.
Two of them opted for in-season surgery like Anunoby.
Johnson came back after only 19 days during his fifth All-Star season in 2010-11 while Walker missed longer — 23 games in 53 days, according to Stotts.
The Knicks are hoping Anunoby would heal as quickly as Johnson did.
SNY’s Ian Begley reported that Anunoby’s injury factored in the Knicks trade deadline move to acquire Bogdanovic.
Kendrick Perkins Install Knicks as Title Contender
Former NBA champion and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins became more bullish about the Knicks’ chances this season after acquiring Burks and Bogdanovic in addition to the Anunoby trade.
“The only thing that the Knicks were missing was depth. And right now they’re deeper than the Pacific Ocean and everybody else in the Eastern Conference needs to get life jackets, including the Boston Celtics,” Perkins boldly declared on NBA Today on February 8, moments after the Knicks pulled off the trade with the Detroit Pistons. “This New York Knicks team is a legit title contender this season.”
When healthy, the Knicks have one of the deepest teams in the league.
Their starting five has it all — elite perimeter (Anunoby) and rim (Mitchell Robinson) defenders, solid catch-and-shoot wings (Anunoby and Donte DiVincenzo) and the dynamic duo of their All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle.
Burks and Bogjanovic will slide to the bench and spearhead a second unit filled with players who can start for other teams.
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Sports Injury Expert Breaks Down Knicks OG Anunoby’s Injury