As soon as Knicks guard Iman Shumpert heard about Celtics star Rajon Rondo’s season-ending ACL injury — an injury that could impact the NBA’s playoff picture, and is the latest in a league-wide epidemic — he clutched at his own surgically repaired knee. Empathy, it appears, knows no team.
“I feel real bad for him. I just grab mine every time I hear about it. I know the feeling,’’ said Shumpert, who tweeted out his support for Rondo a couple of hours before last night’s 106-104 Garden win over the Hawks. “I don’t wish that upon nobody. I’ve been through it. … But Rondo’s tough; he’ll get through it.
“Hopefully he gets back to where he was. … It’s tough. No way around it, you just gotta work every day. But he’s going to do that, though. It’s Rondo.’’
Shumpert, Rondo, Derrick Rose and Ricky Rubio all have suffered torn ACLs in the last 10 months; and the Shumpert knows all too well how painful the injury is, and how arduous the rehab.
He tore his own ACL making a move on a Miami defender in last year’s playoff loss to the Heat, and didn’t return until the Knicks game against the Pistons on Jan. 17 in London. The rust has been obvious. He went into last night off a one-point, 0-for-6 shooting, clunker Saturday in Philadelphia.
Nevertheless, Shumpert insists he’s not thinking about his knee.
“Anybody that comes back from it, you ain’t trying to think about it. You go through nine months, I think you’re mentally pretty strong. It’s all right now. If I have to sit out nine months, it better be all right, or else I’m yelling at the doctors,’’ Shumpert said with a laugh. “I’m just happy to be playing. Sitting out eight, nine months ain’t for me. I’ve got a smile every day now. [Before] I couldn’t smile.’’
Shumpert has started all five of the Knicks’ games since returning, and coach Mike Woodson said he will keep him in the lineup. But watching Shumpert try to regain chemistry with his teammates underscores what Boston will have to go through, even when Rondo returns.
“We’ve had more ACL injuries over the last two years — year-and-a-half, really — than I can ever remember since I’ve been a part of this league,’’ Woodson said. “[A season] is very fragile. Every team in this league, a key guy can go down and screw everything up. Rondo’s a big piece of what Boston does. I don’t wish that injury on anyone, but if anybody can bounce back, Rondo will.’’