The Case of the Pathetic Patella : It’s Worst the Coach Has Ever Seen, but Wave Cager Is Fighting Back

If anyone writes a book called “The Knee Injury Chronicles,” Pepperdine basketball player Grant Gondrezick and his patella ought to take up at least a chapter.

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said that Gondrezick, a fifth-year senior guard who sat out last season after surgery on his left knee, had “the worst looking knee I’ve seen (that had) no cartilage or ligament damage.”

It’s amazing that he didn’t have that kind of damage. Gondrezick was injured at a summer construction job in 1979 when a 200-pound slab of steel fell and hit his knee.

He was left with a cracked knee bone, and even after arthroscopic surgery to remove part of the bone, he played three seasons in pain. He did not play much as a freshman, but he was the first guard off the bench in his sophomore year. He was a starter and the Waves’ leading scorer (13.7-point average) in the 1983-84 season. That year Pepperdine, missing some key starters from the previous year, finished with an uncharacteristic 15-13 record after having won three straight West Coast Athletic Conference champions.

Played Despite Injury

Gondrezick was told after his accident that he would some day have to undergo major surgery to better repair the damage. He contemplated having the operation and sitting out the 1983-84 season. But he played--and played well--despite the fact that a remaining bone fragment kept scraping his kneecap and he had great difficulty moving laterally, which hampered him on defense.

In May of 1984, he had three hours of surgery. Gondrezick said that constant scraping of his femur against the patella had rubbed away part of his kneecap. He said surgeons had to cut away part of the kneecap so it could grow back.

Looking back, he said, “I wish I had stayed with arthroscopic surgery and never had the knee cut open because it took forever.” He was in a cast from hip to ankle for four months, three of them on crutches, and it was “the worst time of my life. It was during the summer heat, and the pain made it hard to sleep.”

When Gondrezick returned to the team this fall, one early report had it that he was “completely healed and healthy.” The report was premature. On Nov. 5, Pepperdine opened its season with a 73-61 exhibition loss to Athletes in Action, and Gondrezick said he had “a lot of pain” before that game. He said that coaches considered holding him out of the game, but he played, if briefly, and was limping and far from his old self.

Pain Diminished

After that appearance, he said that team trainer T. J. Byrne put him through a a variety of exercises and used ice and whirlpool treatment. The regimen was good for him, he said. “Right today (late last week), I’m feeling very good about it. I have pain, but it’s nothing like it was two weeks ago. I really feel that I’m getting better as every day goes by.”

He would like to put the injury behind him and get back in the starting lineup. But Dwayne Polee has moved into his spot. Polee had played forward when Gondrezick was the starting off guard. But the former Manual Arts High School star had a sensational year at guard last season, capped by his selection as the WCAC player of the year as Pepperdine won another conference title and finished 23-9.

Gondrezick said he is happy that Polee is getting the recognition he has long deserved and that he doesn’t see himself “getting a starting job very soon. I’ve got to help the team win as many games as it can, but at the back of my mind is the idea of cracking the starting lineup.

“I’m very thankful to be playing. . . . By the same token, I’m not satisfied, and I’m going to keep pushing myself to play more.”

An ‘Important’ Role

Harrick said about Gondrezick’s injury, “We’ve forgotten about it, and we’re going to go on with life. I’m not sure what Grant’s role will be, but I’m sure it’s going to be important.”

He said that when his 1982 substitutes, including Gondrezick, came off the bench Pepperdine, often was a better team than when the five starters were playing. “Sometimes your starters don’t play well. I’m looking for Grant to make the team better. . . . I’m not going to start him immediately because I’m satisfied with the way things are going now.”

Other returning starters besides Polee are point guard Jon Korfas, forwards Eric White and Anthony Frederick and center Levy Middlebrooks. Key reserves returning are guard Marty Wilson, forward David Brittain and center Mike Mounts.

With those players, Pepperdine had an 11-1 conference record. Though the Waves won 23 games, many of them were tight and many were of the come-from-behind variety. And they lost their opening-round NCAA playoff game to Duke, 75-62.

Tourney Not Enough

How can virtually the same squad as last year improve this season? Gondrezick said the Waves should “not be happy just to get to the NCAA Tournament but should go there with the idea of winning it. We don’t ever want to be satisfied.

“That’s where I come in. I think I’ve got to be the player to help the team improve.”

Gondrezick said the Waves will find out how good they are Friday night when they open the season against Kansas, ranked 10th in the nation by the Sporting News in the preseason. The game is in Denver’s McNichols Arena and is part of four regional opening rounds of the first Big Apple National Invitation Tournament. Texas El Paso plays Washington in another Denver tourney game before the Pepperdine-Kansas match-up.

“It’s a great way to start the season,” Gondrezick said. “It’s the first year they are doing it, and we’re a part of history. We’re involved in that caliber of play right off the bat.”

Hopes for Pro Career

Gondrezick has not given up his dream of eventually being involved in an even higher caliber of play, the National Basketball Assn. “If I can just get the right chance with the right team, I haven’t given up hopes of that. . . .

“At the same time, I’ve changed my values. Education has become more important to me, and so has my family. Those were things I took for granted before.

“For me to have a shot at it (the NBA), I have to have a great year, and the team has to go a couple of rounds in the NCAAs. If that happens, I think I’ll get drafted.” He said he would love to play for the Denver Rockets because his older brother Glen played four years for the Rockets and Denver is the hometown of the brothers and the rest of their family. “That’s the dream,” he said.

It is unfortunate that the dream had to be put on the shelf while he went through the nightmare of surgery and a lengthy recuperation, but Gondrezick looks at his experience as a way of learning through pain. “If I had to say one thing about the surgery, it was a great maturing experience. I wouldn’t suggest that everyone go through it, but I try to think of it in a positive way.”

And the painful times are receding. Harrick pays Gondrezick this tribute: “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen, and he has a greater threshold of pain than anyone I have been around. He’s a tough kid and a fine athlete.”