Imagine someone stabbing your groin, hip and abdominal area all at the same time. Now, imagine you\u2019ve gotten surgery, returned to work as a professional basketball player, then aggravated your wound on your first day back on the job.<\/p>\n
Welcome to life as Miles McBride<\/a>, whose sports hernia sustained in late January required a core-muscle surgical procedure, rendering him sidelined for two months of action. And when McBride returned to the court for a March 29 matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> and dove for a loose ball, only to come up grimacing and leave the game for good, he didn\u2019t need more than a day to recover in time for the Knicks<\/a>\u2019 March 31 matchup against the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n McBride chalked the pain, the incident, the scary exit to being part of a process he hopes can help put the surgical procedure in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tweak, and it\u2019s a painful tweak. It\u2019s not necessarily as bad, it\u2019s just sometimes you can\u2019t do anything about it,\u201d he said. Asked to explain the injury to those who\u2019d never experienced it, McBride let out a sigh and laughed: \u201cIt\u2019s like someone stabbing your groin, hip and ab at the same time. It\u2019s not fun, but I\u2019ll get back right.\u201d<\/p>\n The surgery, he said, successfully tightened the core area he hurt on March 27 against the Sacramento Kings. Diving for 50-50 balls, making hustle plays, or even defending with physicality and force can jar things loose once again.<\/p>\n McBride said he and the medical team were prepared for an aggravation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just a part of the recovery process,\u201d he said. \u201cBasically everything was tightened, and now I\u2019m back to moving around, so it\u2019s just part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n McBride was in the middle of a breakout season with averages of 12.9 points on 42.2 percent shooting from deep prior to the surgery. In four games since returning, he has totaled 15 points on 5-of-22 shooting from the field and 5-of-17 shooting from 3-point range (though he shot four-of-nine combined over his last two games).<\/p>\n Much like the physical toll the surgery took on his body, McBride and his team expected a slow ramp back into playing form.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough thing to be out so long, have a surgery in the middle of the season,\u201d he said. \u201cSo just leaning on God, my teammates and my work ethic and I\u2019ll be good. I\u2019ll do whatever I can do to help this team.\u201d<\/p>\n McBride is in the second year of a three-year, $13 million deal and will be eligible for a contract extension this summer.<\/p>\n DIAWARA\u2019S ROLE<\/p>\n