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Oklahoma City's Andre Roberson says he's almost ready for game action
Andre Roberson is ramping up his workouts.
He did more in practice Friday than he did earlier in the week, according to Thunder coach Billy Donovan, but Roberson (return to play management) sat out of most of the contact portions of practice.
Roberson stayed after for fitness-focused drills with coaches. He guarded a ball handler the length of the court and ran consecutive full-court sprints with a layup on each end. He finished the workout with 3-point shots and free throws.
As he caught his breath, Roberson addressed the media for the first time in two weeks.
“It felt good ,” he said of the workout. “Still working myself into game shape, every day just trying to chug away. So, step by step, day by day.”
The medical staff felt it was important for Roberson to go through high-intensity work, including five-on-five drills, for several consecutive days at the beginning of training camp, according to Donovan. That was something Roberson had not done in his injury rehabilitation since rupturing his left patellar tendon in January 2018.
He felt soreness afterward – Donovan has stressed that such a reaction is normal – and dialed back his participation in the weeks after.
“I ain't played basketball in like a year and half,” Roberson said, “so going f rom playing against nobody – playing against coaches and other stuff like that, doing hard drills against other guys – to actually playing five-on-five is a big step up. Just taking it a day at a time, and not just my knee, my overall body, getting a feel. I gained weight — upper body mass, muscle — so I just have to get readjusted to my body just (from) sitting out, as well as my knee.”
Roberson has come close to returning before. Last November, he had already worked past set backs that had extended his timeline to return. In a post-practice workout on Nov. 29, Roberson sprinted and changed direction quickly. He even threw down a dunk.
The next day, The Thunder announced that an MRI revealed an avulsion fracture thought to have occurred when Roberson landed from a jump during a non-contact workout. He's been recovering from that setback ever since.
“I' m way better now than last November now ,” Roberson said Friday. “Mentally, physically, I gained more weight, got stronger messing with( player development analyst) Fortune (Solomon) over there. And just learning, honestly, through this whole process. My character's been built. I feel like I'm better off now than I ever have been.”
In addition to making sure his knee is healthy enough for the grind of an NBA season, Roberson said he wants to avoid risking injury to any other part of his body by returning too quickly.
"That's the whole point of me taking it easy, is when I come back, I want to be back," he said. "When I step on that floor I want to be ready to go for the whole season. That's my ultimate goal."
Roberson can't put a specific timeline on his return, and his availability for the Thunder's season opener at Utah on Wednesday remains unknown. But Roberson is hopeful that he'll be gameready “pretty soon.”
“I don't know if I look good over there to you guys or not,” Roberson said ,“but I feel good.”