Unbelievable:Three-time All-Star Julius Randle will undergo…
There will always be a January for the New York Knicks. The franchise revealed on Thursday that three-time All-Star Julius Randle would require season-ending surgery on his right shoulder. In five months, doctors will reevaluate him.
The news slices into the Knicks’ hopes of a long-term playoff run, ones that bolstered just after the trade for OG Anunoby, when the group was fully healthy and reeled off a 15-2 run to begin 2024. Randle, especially, could feel the energy change during that stretch. He called Anunoby the “perfect piece” and was playing possibly the best basketball of his life.
But the 29-year-old took a hard fall while driving to the rim during a Jan. 27 game against the Miami Heat, landing on his right shoulder and dislocating it. He exited the game immediately and hasn’t played since.
The plan was for Randle to rehabilitate his shoulder. Behind the scenes, he had pushed hard to return at some point this season. If there is one thing Randle can’t stand, it’s missing games, and that trait turned even more intense once he realized the magic the fully healthy Knicks could poof into existence.If the rehab went well enough, the hope was Randle could avoid surgery and return in the spring. He progressed to on-court work, shooting and going through controlled contact drills against pads, but he never participated in a full practice.
The worry was that, upon his return, any hit could knock Randle’s shoulder back out of place. Because of that, his rehab centered around the muscles and tendons around the dislocation. If he could strengthen those as much as possible, he might be able to take contact in an NBA game.