Franchise Injuries: Brandon Roy Could Be The Next Vince Carter
Brandon Roy (photo. Aaron Hewitt)
Not one to admire for his athleticism but rather his skill set that superposed it, Blazers guard Brandon Roy faces not one, but two knee surgeries. It was the final blow to the roughest patch of his young career that stretches back to the end of last season.
And the more you think about it, Roy’s path is becoming eerily similar to the career of Vince Carter, who quite conversely to Roy was known mostly for his vertically-emphatic style. Both Carter and Roy provided a face to an NBA team without one. And both saw their injuries cripple them just as they had put their teams into the discussion of perennial playoff contender.
“I’m trying to do the best thing I can to get back on the floor,” Roy said in a statement. “We’ve been able to get a number of different opinions and it’s something we’ve decided.”
Carter, whose enigmatic career consisted of unreal aerial assaults mixed with criticisms of being soft, became the face of the Toronto Raptors franchise. He put Canada on the NBA map as one of the league’s most recognized faces while playing for a not-yet successful NBA franchise. Then he got hurt, never the same player when he went to New Jersey, Orlando and now Phoenix.
Roy, the face of the Trail Blazers, had noticeably less agility and explosiveness leading up to his decision to get the duel-surgeries. Down from his 19.9-point and 4.9-assist career averages, the Blazer guard was averaging 16.6 points and 3.3 assists per game this year — not bad numbers. Perhaps he played off how badly his knees are damaged so well for the same reason he became an All-Star talent in the NBA. Never the fastest nor the highest flier, Roy rose to success because of his craftiness and smarts.
But those traits aren’t enough to stop the inevitable demons of bad knees; Roy has admitted he has little cartilage left in either. According to The Oregonian, the arthroscopic surgeries will smooth out his knees and put his total knee surgeries at six.
And it looks like Portland realizes they may never again see the Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy. What they can hope for is that he recovers enough, as the creaky-kneed Carter has, to remain a viable role player.
Said Blazers general manager Rich Cho to The Oregonian: “This is really a temporary fix. Nothing is permanent. And it might not help. We have to try it and see how he feels.”
What do you think will happen to Brandon Roy?
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January 14th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
james says:
He’d be lucky to be the next Vince… He’s going to be the next Penny..
January 14th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Jason Magder says:
This article is not only sloppy and lazy, but to call Roy the next VC is an INSULT to VC. Carter averaged 23.5 points per game in New Jersey (including seasons of 24.5 points, 25.2 points and 24.2 points) and is the 37th all time scorer in League history and is 26 points from reaching the 20,000. (Not to mention he is averaging 18 points per game at age 34 in Phoenix).
Brandon Roy will be LUCKY to even reach the same stratosphere as Vince Carter.
January 14th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Alex "Robocop" Murphy says:
Whatever happened to Michael Redd?
I agree that he’s the next Penny. Penny had microfracture surgery (when that type of surgery and recovery were really in its infancy for sports players). Brandon Roy just doesn’t have any cartilage left. Soon you’ll hear the same thing about Chris Paul
January 14th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
TD says:
whats wrong with cp’s knees?
January 14th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
NTstateOFmind says:
not even close- BRoy still puts in 110% (example, when he came back last playoffs just getting off of surgery) …whereas Wince stopped trying and gave up on the city of Toronto
January 14th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Ian says:
i have to agree with james on this one
January 14th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
NTstateOFmind says:
what was Vince Carter’s surgery- heart transplant?
January 14th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Promoman says:
I have to echo the previous comments saying that Brandon may be the next Penny. Vince is still in the top 15-20 at least in terms of athleticism, he just chooses to pick spots and has been on teams where he doesn’t need to put up Toronto numbers. Brandon had a serious injury history coming in, Portland took a gamble, and looks like the Blazers rolled snakeeyes.
January 14th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Brown says:
Even if he’s not the same player he was before the surgeries, hopefully B-Roy can come back and be a player in the NBA. I’d hate to see his career cut short this early.
January 14th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Duke says:
Portland is where knees go to die.
January 14th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
karizmatic says:
Yeah he’s going to be the next Penny unfortunately. Arthroscopic surgery on both knees at the same time? He better have Kenyon Martin’s resilience.
January 14th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Nella says:
Yeah, seriously. This is some of the laziest logic I’ve ever seen. How about Roy is the next Amare, or Penny, or Kenyon, or Bowie, or one of the hundred other big names who had knee surgery?
They both had injuries, thats why they are the same? Nevermind that one of them was probably faking it? That one of them mailed it in? Etc etc etc?
January 14th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Albert Hayes` says:
How is this one even close…. one is a future hall of famer !
January 14th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Mike says:
Wow are people stupid. To even consider Roy in the same sentence as Carter is just disrespectful. I find it funny how most fans and media members think Vince has had this awful career and that he was finished when he left Toronto. Go look at his career stats and games played before you write this crap!
January 14th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
kobeef says:
Has there been a franchise in recent memory that has gone so quickly from “model for building a contender” to “complete mess”?
I think some heads are gonna roll in Portland.
Niether Roy nor Oden’s injuries were a secret coming into the league. The management of this team made a conscious choice to take Oden and Roy instead of Rudy Gay and Kevin Durant…..worst draft decisions of the past 10 years.
January 14th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
gilford says:
Why not compare him to T-Mac?
January 14th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
gilford says:
Both of them have not reach the 2nd round of playoffs so far in their career.
January 14th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Stylez G. Write says:
Hmmm….’duel-surgeries’-Freudian slip?
January 14th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
yoda says:
he’s closer to t-mac or penny than to vince. vince menaged to play 10 at reasonably high level while roy would be happy to play 10 years at all. i wish all the best to roy, but this isn’t looking good
January 15th, 2011 at 9:45 am
sean says:
lol another pathetic article by a casual basketball personality…vince carters prime was actually after toronto btw 2005-2007 lol get your facts straight he missed about 12-14 games TOTAL in his 5 seasons with NJ
January 16th, 2011 at 6:34 am
bakedbeing says:
Karizmatic: I think you might be thinking of microfracture surgery. Arthroscopic is just a term for minimally invasive surgery, if I’m not mistaken. Microfracture is where they cause deliberate damage to your knee to try to get it to grow new cartilage. Correct me if I’m wrong but I get the impression the ‘Blazers are getting the cleanup surgery rather than committing to the 18 month rehab version for Roy. I don’t remember hearing if microfracture is an option for him.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:05 am
vcfaninToronto says:
Who’s writing this crap? Roy can ball but hasn’t reached (and probably will never reach) the level that Carter has. I actually think that Vince was a better overall player in NJ than in Toronto; his basketball IQ was a lot better by this time and was anything but a role player in his years there. Even right now in Phoenix he’s not really a role player and is 34 years old. The Roy-Penny comparison is spot on, but I’m pulling for Roy to shake that.