Hornets’ Kaminsky healthy again

Frank Kaminsky never expected to be hospitalized for four days in June of 2016 with tubes running in and out of his chest following surgery to repair an air pocket in his lung.

He never expected to spend two months doing little else than sitting on his couch wheezing because it hurt to breathe. He never expected to lose 20 pounds and have his muscle mass deteriorate. And he never expected it would affect him mentally like it did.

“They said it was going to be this minor procedure and it ended up being this thing where I was in a lot of pain,” Kaminsky said.

Kaminsky is breathing a little easier this year — literally.

He ran through drills feeling healthy and conditioned as the Hornets opened training camp on Tuesday, a far cry from where he was this time a year ago.

“He looks really good now — bigger, stronger and he’s put a lot of work into his skill level,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said Tuesday.

Kaminsky is just happy to be healthy — physically and mentally.

Along with the physical pain, the Hornets’ former firstround draft pick said the surgery started to affect his mind knowing the regular season was approaching and he was falling behind his teammates and other players around the league in his conditioning.

He’d regularly call his mother and plead with her to hang out with him just to pass the time.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat,” Kaminsky said. “I didn’t take any of the pain medicine. It was a whole miserable process.”

All the while the season opener in October approached like a ticking clock.

“I was really losing my mind,” Kaminsky said.