<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Emeka Okafor knows it?s getting closer -- and he can?t wait. ?I?m just trying to get my mojo back, man,? he said. ?I?m trying to get my body ready to play and have been working real hard -- long hours putting in overtime, but hey, I?m just trying to get ready.? After missing the last 48 games of the regular season in 2005-06 with an ankle injury, Okafor has been working out for approximately six weeks at Charlotte Bobcats Arena and is getting stronger each day as he works his way back into playing shape. ?You have no idea how much I want to get back out on that court,? Okafor said after an intense workout recently with Bobcats strength and conditioning coach Mark Coffelt. ?I?ve been waiting and trying to be patient. I?m just glad to be able to sweat and be tired like this right now. It?s good stuff.? Okafor is currently in the final phase of rehabbing his ankle and is now working to re-gain the overall body strength he had before the injury ? something that takes time, especially after spending weeks walking around in a cast. ?When you?re in a cast for that extended period of time, you go back to square one so to speak,? Coffelt said. ?We need to get him ready to play basketball at an extremely high level in the NBA, so the therapy and the strengthening goes above and beyond what you normally do to get back walking again. ?There?s nothing we do that supercedes playing basketball. That?s where we are trying to get him this summer -- to the point where he?s healthy, pain free, has great range of motion, has great strength, is competing again and working on his game, working with the fellas and having a good run. That is what?s going to translate the best in the fall, so we have to get him to the point where he?s working on his game.?</div> Source
