Where is Michael Redd?
“Still working out, training, planning to play with somebody next year,” said the former All-Star, now 33. “I’d love to play on a contender to let the League know that I can still play after having gone through what I’ve gone through.”
Before you say that he’s too old or that his knees can’t take another 82 games, remember that he’s a shooter. Shooters find ways to put the ball in the basket on off-nights, find new angles in the air when a defender closes out. Shooters keep shooting, no matter what.
Redd built a home on the perimeter over 11 seasons with the Bucks with career averages of 38 percent from beyond the arc to go along with 19 points a game. Despite tearing both his ACL and MCL in his left knee twice, missing multiple seasons (including last season), Redd doesn’t feel like he has taken his last shot yet.
It’s been five years since Redd helped USA’s “Redeem Team” win Gold in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the pinnacle of his career. But more than time has passed since then—who Redd used to be, who he wanted to be and who he could have been have disappeared as well.
After recovering from the first ACL and MCL tears suffered in January 2009, Redd re-tore both ligaments in the same knee almost a year later in January 2010, playing just 61 games total over his last three seasons with the Bucks (2008-11).
“The first injury was just: I’ll be back soon, just a bump in the road. Nothing career-ending,” he said. “But I came back too soon. After the second injury, I had two emotions: an extreme high in one moment from the Olympics, and then the very next moment, an extreme low. That was a dark time, really dark. It was like, this was not supposed to happen again.” (READ MORE.)
