<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Though he never played a game in a Portland uniform during his 11-year NBA career, Terrell Brandon is a Trail Blazer fan through and through. The two-time All-Star point guard lives in Northeast Portland, runs his barber shop and retail business there, and pulls for his hometown team.</p><p class="body_copy">That’s why news of Greg Oden’s microfracture surgery blew him away like a butterfly in a hurricane.</p> <p class="body_copy">“We’ve been looking forward to having a dominant center for a long time,” Brandon says. “We finally got him, and now we have to wait. The anticipation of what’s ahead is hard, really hard. We want to win right now.”</p> <p class="body_copy">Few understand what Oden is going through better than Brandon, whose illustrious career was cut short at age 31 by a knee injury. The 5-11 former Grant High and University of Oregon standout underwent three surgeries to his left knee while with the Minnesota Timberwolves – the last two microfracture operations.</p> <p class="body_copy">Brandon was at the height of his career in 1999 when he suffered his first injury to the knee. He tried to come back after six weeks.</p> <p class="body_copy">“I was pushing to get back,” Brandon recalls. “The team needed me. You try to play through it, but it’s just not the same.”</p> <p class="body_copy">After an offseason of rehabilitation, Brandon followed with two solid seasons, averaging 17.1 points and 8.9 assists in 1999-2000, and 16.0 points and 7.5 assists in 2000-01. By the next season, though, Brandon could feel the leg wasn’t right. Still, he tried to play.</p> <p class="body_copy">Finally, he was out on a fast break in the first half of a game against San Antonio when his knee buckled and he almost blew a wide-open layup.</p> <p class="body_copy">“At halftime, (coach) Flip Saunders told me, ‘That’s it,’ ” Brandon says.</p> <p class="body_copy">Brandon never played another NBA game.</p> <p class="body_copy">He underwent his first microfracture surgery in early 2002.</p> <p class="body_copy">“I’d never heard of it,” he says. “I had to ask 100 questions. The one thing that was mentioned was that it was really for older people. That concerned me, of course. But after doing research, I learned it was a pretty good procedure.”</p> <p class="body_copy">Brandon rehabbed and tried to prepare for the 2002-03 season.</p> <p class="body_copy">“That’s when doctors looked at my X-rays and told me, ‘You’re not getting any better,’ ” he says. “They said it needed time off to heal naturally, which is the worst thing you can tell a pro athlete. I was in denial.”</p> <p class="body_copy">Within a year, Brandon was back on the operating table, this time in Vail, Colo., under the direction of Dr. Richard Steadman, the pioneer of the microfracture surgery.</p> <p class="body_copy">“Most people don’t even know I had the third surgery,” Brandon says. “It was successful – it’s why I can walk around like I can today, without a limp. But as far as playing pro basketball? (Steadman) told me, ‘You’re never going to be like that again.’ ”</div></p><p class="body_copy">Source: Portland Tribune</p> </p>
