Andrew Bogut all but ruled himself out of the Rio Olympics on Thursday, saying the bone bruises around his left knee almost certainly will not be healed in time for him to play for Australia this summer.
“I’m not great at math, but six to eight weeks minimum is what I’ve been told,” the Golden State center said as his Warriors teammates ran through their shootaround practice in advance of Thursday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “It’s very unlikely at this point, to be honest.”
His math is right: The Olympics start in about seven weeks.
Bogut suffered an impaction injury that led to the bone bruises in Game 5 of the title series. Bogut blocked a shot by Cleveland’s J.R. Smith, and Smith tumbled awkwardly into him moments later.
“Somehow he cannonballed right into my shin with his shoulder,” Bogut said. “It was painful. … I thought I blew out my knee, with the pain that I had.”
Bogut said he heard two bones crack, though that was apparently the bone-on-bone impact.
He plans to rehab aggressively for the next month or so with hopes of speeding up the recovery process, but acknowledged he will need a “miracle” to be ready in time for the Olympics given that there’s almost no way he can participate in any training with the team beforehand. He’s been in touch with officials from Australia about his status, and said they joined him in being disappointed.
“We’ll reevaluate it in a month,” Bogut said. “If I can get back on the court, we’ll see. But as of now it’s not looking good.”
Bogut said if he can’t play, he won’t be going to Rio even to watch. He expressed some concerns in recent days about the Zika virus that is overshadowing much of the run-up to the Rio Games, but was committed to playing for Australia regardless.
“I’m not going to be traveling around, doing all that if I’m not playing,” Bogut said.
