Houston: McGrady kneeds time to adjust

By MARK HALE

Allan Houston says the key to Tracy McGrady's comeback from microfracture left knee surgery is figuring out how to adjust.

"The biggest thing is finding your routine, finding your warm-up, finding what works," Houston said after Knicks practice yesterday, in preparation for tonight's game against the Wizards in Washington. "Because no matter what you do before, it's nothing like -- I mean, I didn't even really get to the stage that he got to in terms of actually going through a daily practice and all that."

Houston has been through this operation before. The former Knick All-Star, who now works as an assistant to team president Donnie Walsh, is a microfracture survivor. McGrady, meanwhile, is trying to recapture his past superstardom, having played just nine games since last season's surgery.

AP
LONG RECOVERY: Allan Houston says Tracy McGrady, icing his left knee during Monday's game against the Bucks, needs to make adjustments in his game after microfracture surgery.
McGrady has played three of those games with the Knicks since being acquired last week, and his efforts have ranged from brilliant (his 26-point opener) to painful (he re-hurt the knee Monday) to tentative (he took eight shots Tuesday).

"It's just a matter of adjusting what your game is going to be," Houston said. "He's already so skilled and talented and gifted that he'll figure out how he's going to be effective. Whether you can jump three inches higher, really at this point, it doesn't really matter. It's a matter of finding your adjustment.

"Larry Johnson did the same thing," Houston added. "He was just as effective. So if you're smart and you have skill, I'll take that all day. I think the biggest thing with guys now, especially for T-Mac, is if he's not feeling any pain, then I'm not worried at all."

When Houston says he never got back to doing daily practices, that's true and not true. Because Houston said yesterday that he underwent the microfracture procedure twice -- once in 1998 on his left knee, then again in 2003 on his right knee. It wasn't known that Houston had microfracture in '98, because the Knicks had listed it as arthroscopic surgery.

Houston came back strong from the '98 surgery, helped by the fact the next lockout-shortened season didn't start until February. He helped the Knicks to the NBA Finals that year, saying he was aided by anti-inflammatories.

"It didn't really affect me because I was still so young," said Houston, who was 27 at the time of the surgery.

A few years later, at age 32, Houston needed the operation on the other knee. And in the 2003-04 season, he played just 50 games, though he averaged 8.5 points per game. The next year, however, his last in the NBA, he played in just 20 games and averaged 11.9 points.

McGrady, 30, said Jason Kidd -- who also underwent microfracture surgery -- told him he needed a year of playing "to really get over the pain and really to get his speed and everything back."

Coach Mike D'Antoni has seen players come back from microfacture surgery, and said he expects McGrady's explosiveness might regress more before improving.

"I would expect him even to go down some," D'Antoni said.

McGrady said that could happen, but he hopes it isn't the case. "I don't want to have any decline," he said.

But McGrady said he still is uncomfortable on the court.

"I [normally] just play off of instinct, and right now I'm thinking because I haven't been playing," he said.

Anyway, I knew Houston had surgery on his knee back then, but they never said it was MF. It's crazy how the lockout actually benefitted him.