{"id":447473,"date":"2026-01-30T14:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:04:15","slug":"with-jimmy-butler-the-warriors-are-banking-on-a-recovery-thats-just-about-unprecedented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447473\/","title":{"rendered":"With Jimmy Butler, the Warriors are banking on a recovery that\u2019s just about unprecedented"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the \u201cSection 415\u201d podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the last 20 years, no NBA player Jimmy Butler\u2019s age or older has returned from a torn ACL. Even in other team sports, it\u2019s nearly impossible to find a comparable success story.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the 36-year-old Warriors wing can\u2019t return to the court \u2014 just that the challenges he faces are practically unparalleled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even with Giannis Antetokounmpo suddenly more available<\/a> than ever, the Warriors have continued to signal their commitment to building around Butler and Steph Curry <\/a>rather than package Butler\u2019s $54 million salary in a trade, a source indicated. With or without Antetokounmpo, the organization is anticipating that Butler will return next season after a year of ACL rehabilitation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the lack of precedent, that position is bold. To understand just how bold, The Standard spoke with Dr. Laura Moore, an assistant attending orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. The conversation offered up some optimism for Butler but no certainty on his recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in a better situation than most 36-year-olds,\u201d Moore said. \u201cBut everything gets harder when you get older. It\u2019s harder. You\u2019re probably at a little higher risk for stiffness, you\u2019re at a higher risk for persistent swelling, you\u2019re at a little bit of higher risk for aches and pains. And as you get older, it\u2019s always harder to recover muscle mass. So he\u2019s not a typical 36-year-old, but everything gets harder when you\u2019re older.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Butler will have every resource \u2014 physical therapists, recovery technology, athletic trainers managing swelling \u2014 available to him to achieve the best outcome possible. Still, he is \u201cat kind of the tail-end of the bell curve for ACL injuries,\u201d Moore said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reason tearing the anterior cruciate ligament is such a serious injury is that it\u2019s responsible for the vast majority of stability in the knee. It connects the femur to the tibia and is the biggest of the four knee ligaments (the others are the MCL, PCL, and LCL).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Butler tore his ACL on Jan. 19, when he landed awkwardly while receiving an entry pass from Brandin Podziemski. He has yet to undergo surgery, as the swelling needs to subside first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The surgical options are straightforward. ACL reconstruction is standard for elite athletes with goals of a full recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

6 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, Jan. 20<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The procedure involves borrowing a tendon or ligament from elsewhere on the patient\u2019s body; most often, the knee cap. There are also graft options from the hamstring or quad, but those techniques are either rare or out of favor.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one variation Butler could consider, Moore said, though it\u2019s more common in patients who still have open growth plates. Lateral extra-articular tenodesis, or LET, is an old procedure that has been repurposed recently because of evidence suggesting it reduces re-tear rates. It involves attaching part of the IT band to a different part of the femur instead of letting it flow up the side of the thigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Butler has torn his meniscus and sprained his MCL before, though those injuries won\u2019t factor into his operation unless there\u2019s damage beyond the ACL.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of the surgical procedure, Butler is facing a yearlong recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecovering from any injury like this is hard, right?\u201d Moore said. \u201cRegardless of how old you are, there\u2019s probably a minimum of nine months that they\u2019re putting in. And they\u2019re putting in daily work, daily rehab, trying to get back to the same level they\u2019re at.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

De\u2019Anthony Melton, Butler\u2019s teammate, missed exactly one year from the date of his ACL reconstruction surgery in December 2024. Seeing Butler go down brought back bad memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tough part, Melton said, starts after surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day really is a grind,\u201d he said. \u201cMentally, that\u2019s the biggest hit you\u2019ll probably take. But someone like him, he\u2019s so mentally strong and thinking about the positive things, I think it\u2019s going to be all right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melton is a full decade younger than Butler. Players in their mid-20s come back from torn ACLs all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Butler doesn\u2019t have the same reassurance.<\/p>\n

According to In Street Clothes (opens in new tab)<\/a>, Chris Andersen is the only other player since 2005 to tear his ACL after turning 36. He never played another game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard missed his full season at age 30 with a torn ACL. He has come back and is playing at an elite level this season, at 34, but has dealt with chronic lower-body injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving\u2019s torn ACL recovery is ongoing. What the guard looks like upon returning could serve as a closer test case, though Irving is three years younger than Butler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other sports have closer parallels. Tom Brady tore his ACL in 2008, then returned to play 14 more seasons. But comparing anyone to Brady is tough given how anomalous his career was and how he took care of his body. He ran for twice as many first downs at 44 than he did at 24, a mark of his unique conditioning that improved as he got older.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Skiers often deal with knee issues. Lindsey Vonn famously tore her ACL multiple times in 2013 and 2014, when she was in her late 20s. In December, at 41, she became the oldest winner of the downhill skiing World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Skiing, of course, is not basketball. Soccer is more similar, with an emphasis on endurance, short bursts of sprinting, cutting, and pivoting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The closest comparison point in soccer is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who tore his right ACL in 2017 at age 36. He beat the recovery timetable to return in roughly seven months and remained an elite player for years. Then, in 2022, he tore his left ACL and played without it for sixth months, undergoing weekly drainings to alleviate swelling while also taking daily painkilling injections. That year, he helped AC Milan secure the league title. He missed the following eight months after surgery before returning, though his second comeback lasted only four matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Butler is attempting to do has never been done on the court. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s never been done, period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look across the board, there are definitely people who do it,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIf you\u2019re talking Tom Brady or Zlatan Ibrahimovic \u2014 they were, like, really motivated dudes, right? And so, yeah, maybe it\u2019s a question of personality type. If anyone can do it, I bet Jimmy can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5552,7902,590,85],"class_list":["post-447473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}