Knicks say Jalen Brunson and Bojan Bogdanovic had successful surgeries
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
Jalen Brunson’s season came to a disappointing finish, resulting in surgery on his fractured left hand, but he earned a reward for his performance Wednesday as he was named to the All-NBA second team, the first All-NBA honor of his career.
Brunson averaged 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game in the regular season, leading the Knicks to 50 wins and the second seed in the Eastern Conference. He also made his first All-Star team and finished fifth in the Most Valuable Player voting.
His season ended Sunday with a Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the conference semifinals — with his game ending early when he suffered the fractured left hand in the third quarter. He averaged 32.4 points per game in the postseason when he posted five 40-point or better games.
“When you look at his season last year was remarkable,” s coach Tom Thibodeau said after Sunday’s loss. “And his playoff run last year was remarkable. And then to take the step this year that he’s taken, it says a lot about who he is. And he’s never satisfied. He wants to do better. I love his mentality. And I think it permeates to the team.”
“I would say there’s pros and cons in how I played,” Brunson said. “The pros are I played well individually at some points and time during the playoffs. The cons are I didn’t play well enough to help my team move forward. You can say I got hurt in Game 7. I wasn’t playing well in Game 7. We had a 2-0 and a 3-2 lead. So, it’s hard to look at things individually when you don’t help your team.”
Brunson underwent what the Knicks called successful surgery to repair his fractured left hand and will be reevaluated in six to eight weeks. Bojan Bogdanovic also had a surgical procedure to repair his left wrist and also is on a timeline of six to eight weeks for reevaluation.
The timeline of recovery is likely to spoil any chance of Brunson being added to the U.S. National Team for the Paris Olympics.
The surgery for Bogdanovic was the second since the playoffs began. He underwent a procedure to repair a fracture to his foot suffered when Philadelphia’s Nic Batum fell on him while chasing a loose ball. It also marks the seventh surgery a Knicks player has undergone since Mitchell Robinson had a fractured left ankle repaired in December.
OG Anunoby underwent a procedure to remove loose bone fragments in his right elbow in February and Julius Randle, who suffered a dislocated right shoulder in January, underwent surgery in April to repair it. Robinson had a second surgery on his left ankle after reinjuring it against Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
