At 72 all I do now is shoot some at 24hr after I work out. Ive got two new knees which prevents me from running. I played Milwaukie Elks league till mid 40's. Started in Gray Y at Ockley Green late 50's.
I was a basketball junkie playing 4-5 times a week on various rec league teams around the Bay Area and the best pick up games I could find from my late teens until my late 40s. I'm 5'10 and was a good enough athlete to grab the rim, run a 5 minute mile and played with/against many college and pro players. My main skill was my J which I could comfortably shoot pulling up off the dribble going left or right. While I often started games trying to be a playmaker/PG, I was a scorer at heart and would revert to form as soon as the endorphins hit. Both knees have now been scoped, so Bball is behind me. I miss it tremendously. STOMP
I haven't had a knee replacement, but I know plenty of people who have, including my wife. And they agree: the recovery is painful and difficult from what I have seen you have to 'power thru' the pain. You have to keep moving and flexing the knee; don't settle for long periods of no-motion. My wife didn't move the new knee enough and scar tissue built up making the new joint less flexible than it should be. She had to go in for a follow up procedure that flexed the knee to extreme angles, under direct pressures, breaking up the scar tissue. Then, for 3 weeks she had to spend 2 hours at a time, 3 times a day, strapped to a knee flexion machine which kept bending and unbending her knee so the scar tissue would be absorbed instead of forming again. Misery squared good luck on your recovery. You need to have two functioning knees so you can bow down to the Ducks in an appropriate fashion...
Its a pretty gruesome procedure and extremely painful for the first few weeks. Stay in front of the pain. I wish I had dome mine a fews years earlier. Im very pleased with mine. Hang in there and do those exercises. My wife had one done last year and there was so much scar tissue from previous surgeries they had to put her out again and manipulate/break it up which was a tough ordeal for her.
I used to a play a lot of basketball growing up and into my 20s. I'm 36 now with a teenager (who just started college), a toddler, and 4 month old. I still love playing pickup games whenever I get a chance but it hasnt happened in a long while. Plus, last time I played a pickup game, I kept going as long as I could (about 2 hours) and I was so cramped up afterwards I couldnt even walk back home from the neighborhood park. It took me almost an hour for what would normally be a 5 minute walk.
I hope you did. It would be interesting to see the opinion of an ex-player. The go to guy in the forum currently is a Mexican landscaper called @THE HCP or something like that.
I'm 5'11". I played for six months at the stockade at Ft. Lewis WA. I was a good rebounder because I hung out under the basket. I could not hit any shot excpt a layup but i was more consistent at that than Nurk.