Lakers’ Andrew Bynum has knee surgery
Lakers center Andrew Bynum had arthroscopic surgery Wednesday for torn cartilage in his right knee.
The Lakers announced that Bynum is expected to be available on a limited basis at the start of training camp and that he should make a full recovery by the start of the regular season.
Bynum’s brother, Corey Thomas, said Bynum will rehabilitate the knee for six to eight weeks.
The Lakers start training camp Sept. 25, which is earlier than normal because they will play an exhibition game each in London and Barcelona, Spain, in early October.
The procedure was performed by Dr. David Altchek of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Thomas said Altchek “found nothing surprising” during the surgery.
Thomas said Bynum expects to return to Los Angeles in about two days.
“Everything was routine,” Thomas said. “He was in good spirits. He’ll be ready to go when the season starts.”
Bynum, 22, had the right knee drained three times last season.
It was done before Games 1 and 5 in the NBA Finals. He also had it drained in late June before he went to South Africa to watch the soccer World Cup.
Bynum began to have knee problems when he suffered a hyper-extended right knee during Game 6 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 30.
He later was diagnosed with torn cartilage.
Bynum, 7 feet and 280 pounds, impressed his teammates, coaches and management by playing in pain and playing with limitations during the Finals because of his swollen knee.
He averaged 7.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.29 blocks in 25 minutes during the Finals.
In 65 regular-season games, Bynum averaged a career-best 15 points on 57% shooting, 8.3 rebounds and 1.45 blocks in 30.4 minutes.
Bynum, who has twice had knee surgery, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left kneecap in 2008 after he sat out the last 46 regular-season games and all of the playoffs because of a partially dislocated kneecap.
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