David Lee’s return to New York is turning out to be a real pain in the elbow.
The Warriors forward underwent a second surgery on his elbow on Monday to clear out an infection caused by the wound suffered when Wilson Chandler’s tooth punctured Lee, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. Lee, who scored a team-high 28 points in the Warriors’ 122-117 win over the Knicks last Wednesday, finished that game with his arm bandaged, but has been unable to play since and could be out another 2-3 weeks.
The Knicks traded Lee to the Warriors this offseason and Golden State signed him to an $80 million deal. The Warriors are coming under fire for the way they treated Lee’s infection, which may have to be cleaned out four or five more times.
“I know there is a lot of speculation out there, but it almost doesn’t matter how it was treated,” the team’s Dr. Bill Maloney told the paper. “I don’t think they could have avoided this. The die was cast when he got the tooth through the skin with a deep enough puncture wound to allow the bacteria to get in there.”
After the Warriors beat the Knicks, Lee flew to Chicago with the team for a game with the Bulls, but woke up Thursday n “the worst pain” of his life and went to the emergency room. New owner Joe Lacob, who was in Chicago on separate business, flew Lee and Warriors GM Larry Riley back to California for further treatment.
“Every time we look at it, it looks better, but these things are notoriously bad actors,” Maloney said. “David is not going to have any long-term (effects). Delayed diagnosis could lead to very serious problems, but he’s not going to have any of those.”