Bulls' Noah needs shoulder surgery, out 4-6 months
CHICAGO — Bulls center Joakim Noah will undergo left shoulder surgery and is expected to be out four to six months, the team said Saturday night.
Noah dislocated his shoulder during Friday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks after getting tangled up with Mavs big man JaVale McGee in the second quarter.
The Bulls said in a news release the shoulder dislocation was “reduced in the training room” Friday night and was evaluated “at Midwest Orthopedics at Rush, where it was determined that he will undergo surgery to stabilize his left shoulder.”
“The details of the timing, location, and rehabilitation program have not yet been finalized,” the Bulls said in the statement. “Noah is expected to have a full recovery,”
Noah’s shoulder appeared to pop out of place and he instantly started screaming in pain. He went straight to the locker room with his arm dangling by his side. An MRI on Saturday revealed the need for surgery which will likely end his season.
While Noah’s teammates weren’t sure exactly how bad the injury was Friday night, they could tell it was serious based on how he looked and sounded.
Bulls power forward Taj Gibson compared the feeling he had to how he felt when teammate Derrick Rose went down with his first knee injury — a torn ACL in his left knee in April 2012.
“You’ve been going to war with this guy, all kind of different circumstances over eight years, a guy that you pride yourself with especially in practice on a daily basis and he’s one of the emotional leaders on this team,” Gibson said. “It kind of hits you in the heart seeing him on the bench, seeing him on that table like that. I kind of got flashbacks to how when Derrick got hurt. You don’t want to see your man go down like that. It was frustrating.”
Noah struggled throughout the season adjusting to a new role off the bench under first year head coach Fred Hoiberg, but he remained the heart and soul of this group through good times and bad.
“It hurt,” Rose said of seeing Noah in pain Friday. “It hurt. Just knowing how hard he works, how [much] he wants to be on the court, how much he means to this team. It’s devastating.”
In the short-term Noah’s absence means more time for rookie Bobby Portis in the rotation, but the reality for the team is there is a chance that Noah may have played his last game as a Bull. His contract is set to expire at the end of the season and he will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
This isn’t the first time Noah has dealt with a left shoulder injury. He initially injured his left shoulder on Dec. 21 and missed almost a month because of a slight tear.
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