The Dallas Mavericks were hoping they’d get their franchise player back by early December, but it looks like Dirk Nowitzki is having some complications after knee surgery.
The surgery was a month ago, and the Mavs and Dirk were hoping he’d be back on the court after six weeks, but after a few setbacks in the last couple weeks, he’s a little behind.
“I think I’m still about two weeks out before even getting on the court and start working out, start running, start shooting,” Nowitzki said. “That would put me right at six weeks before I get on the court. By that point, I’m assuming I need a good week or two to get in halfway decent playing shape running and shooting and doing all sorts of stuff.”
So it’s only an extra couple of weeks if Dirk stays on his new track. Of course there’s no telling if there will be any problems or if he’ll bounce back to his old self when he finally does make it back on the court.
The Mavericks jumped out to a hot 4-1 start, perhaps getting some motivation to make up for the loss of their superstar, but since then they’re just 2-5. In a very competitive Western Conference, they can’t afford to hover around .500 for too long.
Nowitzki surely wants to help out his team, he seems optimistic he’ll be back soon enough.
“I guess after every surgery you have some ups and downs,” Nowitzki said. “You have some good days and you do a little more and you have a couple bad days. And there were tons of bad days there a couple weeks ago. But it’s getting better and that’s why we increased the workload starting yesterday. I guess you guys reported that already as I was doing a little elliptical and get a little strength back and do a little leg press on that leg and do everything I can to hopefully be back on the court back soon.”
Image: USA Today
