Bone-Breaking Explanation About a Knee

Washington Bullet forward Bernard King recently described his 1985 anterior cruciate knee ligament surgery to David Aldridge of the Washington Post.

The procedure, developed and performed by New York Knick team doctor Norman Scott, involves taking a band of ligaments that extend from the hip to the knee joint, instead of the patella (kneecap) tendon . . . but let King tell it:

“By removing (the band) from the position it’s in you’re not losing a lot. He creates a fracture alongside the knee joint that the band is inserted into the bone. He fractures that area. He lifts the bone with the band, so as a result you still have the blood supply. . . . Then he brings that around to the side of your knee and he screws that down. That is supposed to function, for all intents and purposes, as your anterior cruciate ligament.”

Add King: King, 34, was with the Knicks when the injury occurred.

Before choosing Dr. Scott, he interviewed six of the country’s top orthopedic surgeons, all flown in at the Knicks’ expense.

He said he went further: “I talked to every player that ever tore his anterior cruciate ligament. I talked to Mitch Kupchak. I talked to Campy Russell. I talked to Toby Knight. I talked to everyone I knew. To see how they handled it. How did they make their decision? What did they do to rebound from it?”

Last add King: He learned to swim, worked on an exercise bike, used a rowing machine and watched game tapes of himself.

Said King: “I had to slow it down to very slow speed. And I watched one move. And then every day I would go to the gym and try that move again, with my therapist. . . . I was moving at a fraction of the speed that I moved in the game. But I was implementing the move again, to reintroduce it to me physically and mentally. It became like piecing a puzzle back together, so to speak.”

Trivia time: How many different regular-season announcing crews have worked ABC’s Monday Night Football since it began in 1970?

Use as directed: You hear coaches and players say it all the time: To be successful, a team needs good chemistry .

One college basketball team might refute that. It has all the chemistry it needs, and is only 2-2 after defeating Southern Vermont, 78-59, Saturday.

In 1989, it finished 7-14.

So what is it with Albany (N.Y.) College of Pharmacy?

That’s power: In 1926, Maniford (Hack) Harper of Washburn, Ill., was 9 years old and suffering from polio.

He was visited at Chicago Shriner’s Hospital by a group of Cub players, including Hall of Fame slugger Hack Wilson.

In a 1984 interview, Harper said Wilson put a hand on his shoulder and told him: “Kid, stick it out. Someday, you’re gonna walk.”

Said Harper: “I came home and started walking.”

From then on, Harper insisted on being called Hack.

Add Hack: Harper, disabled all his adult life, attended hundreds of Cub games and met several players.

Last week, he died at 75.

Today, he’ll be buried in a Cub uniform.

The weather up there: Brigham Young’s 7-foot-6 center Shawn Bradley, when asked whether he’s self-conscious about his height, said: “I love being 7-6. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My parents and the (Mormon) church taught me to have self-esteem and have a good positive attitude about myself.”

Someone asked him about dancing with women under 6 feet.

Said Bradley: “I stand them on a chair. If people start to make fun, that’s their problem.”

Trivia answer: Nine.

Quotebook: Former New York Met pitcher Ed Lynch, 35, who will graduate from the University of Miami Law School later this month and become director of minor-league operations for the San Diego Padres: “In one day, I’m going to go from a very old law student to a very young baseball executive.”