James Worthy Quotes

I hurt my left knee playing left tackle. I had surgery on my right knee.

I know with my knee injury, I didn't have the type of medical technology we have today. If I could've had what we had now, I probably could've been back out in three months. I didn't have that.

The thing with NBA teams, a lot of times they just want to get you back on the floor to play, so as a player you've got to be very, very smart.

Am I ever going to be able to play football again? What's going on with my career? I was just thinking things like that. You've got tears going down your eyes. You've got your trainers right there and my parents right there. I was just thinking, "Is this it?" I didn't know what a knee injury was. I'd never felt pain like that.

I didn't think I was going to play that day. I'd have to thank the training staff for getting me on the field that day. They made a bigger deal than I thought it was.

I don't think people understand what microfracture surgery is. It's pretty serious. A lot of basketball players get it in their knees, and if they do bounce back, it takes a while.

I went from being very athletic, one of the best guards in the NBA, to barely making it. No speed, no agility. I had to change how I played because I couldn't exercise or train because my knee constantly hurt.

I've got to take care of the knee to finish the season healthy.

That's always a concern with a player when he's injured. There's a difference between injured and pain. If a guy's injured, he's injured. Pain is pain. Guys can play with pain. Guys can't play when they're injured.

I'm one injury away from hanging up the racket at any time.

I got injured at the Olympic Trials in 2000. I could not jump. I could not walk on my leg properly. I couldn't bend my knee. I couldn't straighten it.

After my first knee operation, in January of '65 before I went to the Jets, Dr. James Nicholas told me everything went well and that I could probably play four years in the NFL. The surgery was trailblazing to a certain extent.

Obviously, not playing a game before playoffs is something that happened, but especially going into the playoffs, you try to feel yourself out, where you're at, and then get right into game tempo and jump right in and play where you were before the injury.

My knee was torn up. I tore every ligament in my knee. It was a very, very bad injury. I had to do what the doctors told me to do, and I did that. The next year, I came back and led the league in rushing.

I've played in Test matches before after injury without first playing a county game or warm-up of some sort.

I try to encourage all my teammates, and I sure hope that some day all athletes - my kids, high school kids - get the same level of care I get. Because you can play for a long period of time without having knee replacements, without having all the major head trauma that people are dealing with.

When you have pain, you have pain, and it's always, like, 30 percent there. Of course, there were some games when I was struggling a lot, but there are different solutions to solve it - anti-inflammatory and this kind of thing - so the pain goes away a bit.

One thing the fans got to understand is that I missed two years, and we took it really, really slow, and we made sure everything was good, and my foot has been great.

It's tough to play with an injury.

I had broken my nose while practicing. Also I got a fracture on my shoulders, knees.

I was told as a teenager I'd never box again. I had a really bad wrist injury; I couldn't even shadow box for six months. I went through surgery just to try and manage it.

How I hurt my knee was doing something so minimal that it was a little worrisome. To try that motion and others again, after the injury and after surgery, made you worry a bit.

It's always good to hear when players aren't out for as long as you thought they would.

My knee injury was something serious. To go six months before I could even jog is pretty serious.

After having my first surgery in 2003, having an ACL replacement, I never thought I'd be able to compete again.