O’Neal after having arthroscopic surgery.
The Golden State Warriors hope to get some extra help from the bench Tuesday night as center Jermaine O’Neal is expected to make his return from wrist surgery.
O’Neal played through the early part of the season with a sprained wrist before finally missing games and subsequently requiring arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn ligament. After the surgery, he remained optimistic that he would not need to miss much of the season.
“I am NOT out for the season contrary to some of the media reports,” he informed fans on Twitter after his surgery.
Indeed, he was not out for the season.
O’Neal, who began doing one-on-one drills around two weeks ago, announced his decision to play in Tuesday night’s home game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Twitter.
Sometimes life presents challenges that seems to be to great to overcome but with god by your side anything and everything is possible!
— Jermaine O’Neal (@jermaineoneal) February 4, 2014
8 weeks ago I was told that I would probably be out for 4months after my surgery, but with a lot of hard work and a lot of prayers I’m back!
— Jermaine O’Neal (@jermaineoneal) February 4, 2014
So tonight I will play and hopefully the rhythm won’t take long to come back….
— Jermaine O’Neal (@jermaineoneal) February 4, 2014
O’Neal has a history of poor luck with injuries. Including this year—his 18th, he has missed more than 400 games in his career.
He was averaging 6.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in just over 18 minutes of play to start the season. Considering power forward David Lee is listed as questionable with a strained hip and sprained shoulder, if his wrist is good to go it could give Golden State a much needed boost from the bench.
With the All-Star break 10 days away and with less than half the season remaining, now is the time for teams to get healthy and start making their pushes to the playoffs. Hopefully, this spells the beginning of such a turn of events for the ever-entertaining Warriors.
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Michael writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com. Follow @mbrumagin
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