Australian Bogut Says He’s a Top 3 Center in the NBA
Australian Andrew Bogut said he’s among the Top 3 centers in the National Basketball Association (NBA) but with one caveat: if and when he’s healthy according to the Golden State Warriors center, who missed 50 games in the 2012-13 regular season because of various injuries.
From a report by Marcus Thompson III of the insidebayarea.com, it looks like the Warriors will have a better outlook for the new season as Bogut himself declared that he’s fully recovered from his injuries—particularly the nagging trouble in his left ankle which forced out in the second round of the 2013 Western Conference.
“I haven’t had any restrictions since July,” stated the Australian. “Five-on-five, three-on-three, four-on-four, conditioning drills, running, jumping, weights — no restrictions. It’s been a great feeling to come into a gym and not have a trainer tell me, ‘You can only do 30 minutes. You can only do this. You can only do that.’ … Very happy to not hear that.”
Bridging the time he played with Milwaukee and Golden State, Bogut has missed 104 of the 148 games. Not to mention playing hurt—and ineffective—during the postseason.
“Anyone can go on Google, research my past two injuries and realize that they’re not chronic,” Bogut said. “I do the right things in the offseason. These are just freak occurrences. These aren’t issues of being overweight or being out of condition,” said Bogut in October of 2012.
But the injuries did not go away and by May of 2013, he wasn’t as optimistic and was close to considering retirement from the NBA.
“When is this going to subside? When am I going to feel better? Am I going to be back to the same level I was playing at before the injury? How long is it going to take? Why is it taking so long? [I am] medically cleared to play, but am I being soft? Am I not going hard enough? Am I going too hard? Too many questions in your mind. I was frustrated.”
Fast-forward to September of 2013 and Bogut has virtually declared that he’s one of the league’s top three centers.
“I’m healthy now,” said Bogut in what sounded like a warning to the rest of the league.