LAS VEGAS — Bad news for Team USA, which has lost another big man.
Bad news for Blake Griffin as he is about to have a second surgery on his left knee just days after signing a new, max five-year, $95 million contract on Wednesday.
Griffin suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee during a scrimmage on Wednesday, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. He did not play in Team USA’s exhibition win on Thursday night and will have surgery on it early next week, the report states.
The Clippers confirmed this on the team Web site.
This is the same knee Griffin had surgery on before his rookie year and the same knee he sprained in the playoffs. However, the new injury is reportedly unrelated to those injuries.
Griffin joins Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh and LeMarcus Aldridge as USA bigs forced to pull out of Olympics due to injury.
Anthony Davis — the Kentucky star and No. 1 overall pick of the Hornets in the draft — has been called back up to the national team (he was in Las Vegas anyway to play on the Hornets Summer League team). He played part of the fourth quarter Thursday night against the Dominican Republic, had a put-back offensive rebound under the basket and an and-1 three with the foul. You could see LeBron James and other Team USA players working hard to pump Davis up.
But Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski added that this is a blow.
“Blake is one of the best players in the league,” Coach K said. “Anthony Davis at some time is going to be one of the best players in the league, but Blake is a proven commodity. And if we don’t have him that’s a big loss. He was playing really well for us.”