[Source](https://twitter.com/briansutterermd/status/1676640769996718084?s=46&t=hc5NrTRIWu5hhJBvuuWS9g)
Full quote:
>They make this sound like a nothing burger..but remember these ‘clean up’ surgeries when players have knee issues down the road. The ‘clean up’ is cutting out and shaving down damaged cartilage and meniscus tissue that the team thinks is causing pain.
>Take a little bit…probably ok. Take more and more, not good long term
The surgery he’s referencing:
> Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo underwent a cleanup procedure on his knee two weeks ago and is uncertain for Greece’s FIBA World Cup play this summer, sources confirm.
by AashyLarry
44 Comments
If I’m the Bucks I trade him asap while his value is still sky high. To the Bulls maybe.
I believe this is what happened to Kemba Walker. He was an ironman for much of his career, but there were like 3 off-seasons in a row where he had surgery like this. Eventually, his knees couldn’t hold up, but you didn’t really think too much about it, as he was always healthy come the regular season.
I’m not saying the same will happen to Giannis, but it is something to kind of be concerned about. Not now, but longer-term.
Nothing burger…that phrase tho. I can’t stand it lol
Giannis to Clippers for Norman and Morris
how is this doctor always so fast with the videos
edit: nvm it is not a video. s/o to him tho
Yeah any sort of procedure on the knee of a giant is at least somewhat serious.
Hoping he recovers soon and is back to his best this season for the Bucks.
I’ll start to worry when he starts stacking up surgeries.
Right now this is the only one he’s ever had.
Kemba Walker had 3 of them in consecutive seasons in Charlotte, but played 81, 79, 80 games in the three subsequent years (and all 82 the year after that) and you could literally never tell anything was wrong, he didn’t lose any of his burst and the knee never appear to hinder him in any way. Till he went to Boston.
Hopefully I’m wrong about this, but Giannis’ long ass Eurosteps have always made me question his shelf life, they simply cannot be good on the knees. Or maybe he is a LeBron-like robot that just never breaks down until he’s like 25 years into his career or whatever.
He’s already had knee issues. That’s the whole point of the surgery. Thankfully it’s just the first surgery he’s had.
Yeah after 2019 Blake Griffin was never the same
Kawhi just had a “clean up” as well. It’s the teams PR trying to downplay knee surgery.
Oof, yeah, any knee surgery is a cause for concern. Hoping they’re actually right though – don’t want to see a star like Giannis lose his prime early.
if its his first surgery then i can’t see a reason to panic
Meniscus cleanup in college cost Dwyane Wade the latter years of his career.
I was just about to post this on the other thread. I had arthroscopic surgery and my knee was the size of a grapefruit for a while, not to mention was still in decent amount of pain. It’s nothing compared to major surgery and guys like Giannis have access to every medical resource at their disposal but it’s no walk in the park. My knee has never been the same since and I got it done at 16.
Surgeries are fucking gruesome, we’re still a ways away from minimally intrusive surgical procedures
Any surgery should be cause for concern but this could end up being a minor blip.
If he starts stacking these then it’s much more concerning.
I’m going to have more concern about this because he’s explosive and a big man.
This was is terrible, trade him to the rockets for nothing just to dump his contract
Yeah if I’m a Bucks fan I’m at least a little concerned by this.
Separate from this surgery, I just don’t think that Giannis’ game is going to age well as he gets into his 30s.
I’m a Bucks fan. I want it to last forever. But his game is based on athleticism more than skill, at this point.
I have a surgery like this scheduled for myself. The recovery time is basically nothing, but I know that my knee is an arthritic piece of shit. It’s no big deal because I make my living sitting behind a desk writing code, not running up and down a basketball court.
I know it’s early to sound the alarms, but I’m starting to wonder if the super dominant version of Giannis might be done for due to injury concerns.
Same thing happened to Russ. You could argue his peak came after his surgeries with the MVP, but I think he had potential to be even better, and he was an Ironman his entire life until the Beverley injury
People should think of these surgeries as if the person is becoming immunocompromised in that area of their body. Gianni’s is now more likely to catch the more common knee injuries and the more severe injuries would be more devastating to his career than others.
It’s not always that, but even so cleanup like this isn’t a big deal typically. Sure, it might have swelling more than expected but that will go down. The big advantage is that you actually get to go in there and look around. MRIs only show you so much, but when you get a scope in you can be 100% sure if the damage. A lot of times athletes will get “cleaned up” to be sure there’s no small tears that need to be sewed or something worse that wasn’t showing up
shaving your tissue
ouch
What if…Giannis takes a precautionary approach and goes less for explosive dunks. Instead, he will follow the path of his teammate, Brook Loopez, and become a reliable 37% 3PT shooter.
finally, those Heat fans who didn’t want to give up Herro for Giannis are proven right!! /s
bound to happen after 21 where he tore everything in that bitch. won a ring on one leg so it was worth it
Without knowing anything, he probably has some fraying on his meniscus and probably a cartilage defect and they’re trimming the loose ends of the meniscus and cleaning up the defect as much as they can.
clean up makes it sound like they open you up and stick a vacuum in there getting all the debris lol
common consensus is this surgery should be fine but if he has another, bucks fans should start shitting themselves
“Clean up” can mean a thousand different things. Giannis and his camp won’t blindly follow the medical advice of the Bucks.
Also, Giannis and his camp have the best doctors in the world available to them. If they decided to take this step, I’m sure it was necessary.
No always. Sometimes it’s vacuuming out a few loose bodies floating around in the knee compartment. It’s a non medical term and vague at nest
I ain’t ready for the end of giannis😭
These kinds of surgeries are fine for none athletes.
Giannis still has to play 100% vs NBA talent. That puts more wear and tear on his knees.
I’m surprised we haven’t found a suitable material to replace the meniscus with yet
Yeah, players as big and physical as Giannis are bound have problems. It’s honestly such a rarity that Lebron hasn’t had bigger problems.
This is the same guy who also tend dramatize every single injury because it gets him youtube clicks
Isn’t this the same dumbfuck who said that Draymond kicking his leg up and kicking dudes in the nuts was a natural motion? Why is this dude not banned from this subreddit
I think this comment should be scarier for Clippers/ Kawhi. He had a “clean up” done after the season. With his injury history and rest history I think it should be a bigger story this off-season.
All good, we are currently on the blow it all up in 2 years train anyways.
I would take what this guy is saying with a grain of salt. He is a non-operative sports medicine physician. He has probably not been involved in one of these procedures since medical school if ever. As an Ortho resident, “Clean-up” is a non-specific word that can mean meniscal/cartilage removal but it could also be as simple as plica/loose body removal as well. We just don’t know from this report.
Additionally, meniscal repairs/shavings are the single most performed procedure in the US for Orthopedics. Sure these are high level athletes and people will point to Lonzo Ball, but the plural of anecdote is not data. Many high level athletes return to full function after such procedures and do just fine. If there is significant cartilage damage then that would be something to note but the word “cleanup” does not imply it. Obviously not ideal but if I were a Bucks fan I would not be freaking out right now.
When I was 21 I tore my meniscus and the doctor told me the fastest recovery time would be a procedure like explained here
It was definitely a fast recovery but then I had weird lingering pain (and worsening balance) years down the line
My guess is this probably isn’t as relevant for Giannis’s NBA career so much as it is for his post-basketball life and mobility when he’s old