Damian Lillard’s miraculous recovery from a blood clot is reason for the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama to be hopeful about a full recovery from a clot of his own this summer.
When Victor Wembanyama entered the NBA two seasons ago, the hype was unreal. The only talent that was more talked about before being drafted was LeBron James. Living up to the expectations seemed very unlikely. However, the 21-year-old delivered and then some over his first two seasons in the association.
He should have been an All-Star in 2023-24 when he won the rookie of the year award. But got the honor this past season. The French phenom is on a path where he could turn into the face of the league as prophesied. It seemed like nothing could derail his rise to superstardom. Then the bad news hammer dropped when he was diagnosed with a deep-vein thrombosis blood clot in his shoulder earlier this year.
The injury ended his season and created questions about his future. Since similar issues ended the careers of other NBA players. However, the news on Thursday that Damian Lillard has made a miraculous return from a blood clot scare of his own is reason for hope in San Antonio.
Victor Wembanayma stats: 24.3 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.1 SPG, 3.8 BPG
“Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard has been cleared of his deep vein thrombosis and is no longer on blood-thinning medication,” sources told ESPN on Thursday.” ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported today.
The nine-time All-Star seemed likely to miss his team’s opening round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. However. Charania claims that while he will miss Game 1, he is in a good position to return at some point during the seven-game series.
Doctors reportedly told team officials that they have never seen such a fast recovery. But it likely occurred because of “early treatment, detection, and specialists working on him before a formal diagnosis.” The future Hall of Famer’s deep vein thrombosis was revealed a month ago on March 25.
While similar, the clots Damian Lillard and Victor Wembanyama are also different. The Spurs star required surgery to deal with his ailment. However, the fast recovery is more proof that current medicine is much better at combating the problem than it was a decade or more ago.
NBA veteran Brandon Ingram also had to undergo surgery in 2019 to treat a blood clot, and it has not stopped him from being a star player in the league in the years since.
There is still no timeline on when Victor Wembanyama will be ready to return to basketball activities.
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