Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: NBA vets preach ACL patience

Jazz center Al Jefferson watched the television footage -- Timberwolves rookie Ricky Rubio down on the Target Center floor, clutching his left knee in pain with 16 seconds left against the Lakers nine days ago -- and couldn't help but feel transported to a February 2009 night in New Orleans.

He fought for a rebound late in a Wolves game against the Hornets and came up hopping in pain across the court to the sideline, where he, too, clutched his knee.

"I watched that and it reminded me a lot of mine," Jefferson said. "Mine was like 35 seconds left, close game, winnable game. I was having a great game, like he was. Then you tear your ACL and there it is, the whole season gone."

Jefferson, 27, well knows the long road back that Rubio faces after he undergoes surgery Wednesday in Vail, Colo., to repair that torn anterior cruciate ligament because Jefferson has traveled that road.

"Just a lot of hard work," Jefferson said about that long road. "He's going to have to dedicate himself for the next six to eight months of hard work to get back and then once you get back, you're still going to have another year, year and a half until you start feeling like yourself again. It's a mental thing."

Jefferson has been there, done that.

So, too, has Suns guard Michael Redd.

"I never forget it, my heart went out to him," said Redd, who tore ligaments in his left knee in both January 2009 and January 2010 while with the Bucks. "I know that feeling all too well. I felt bad for him. I know the process it takes to get back. Right now, more than anything, it's important for teammates to surround him, family to surround him."

Redd said Rubio will be through the worst part once renowned knee surgeon Dr. Richard Steadman operates on him on Wednesday. Jefferson said the worst comes in those next six weeks after the surgery.

"You can't move or walk for a good month, month and a half," Jefferson said. "You sit there like are you ever going to be the same again, are you ever going to be able to run and jump again, all types of stuff running through your head. After that, once you start getting off the crutches and moving around, it gets easier and easier."

Nearly nine months after his injury, Jefferson was back for the Wolves on opening night in the fall of 2009. But looking back now, he doesn't consider himself fully back until after the All-Star break the following season, after he had been traded to Utah in July 2010.

"It probably took me a good year and a half until I started feeling like my old self, where I could move around and do the things I was doing before," he said. "It comes back, but it depends on that hard work. You work hard and after that, it will get back but you have to be dedicated and patient."

"He's younger [21], he's more resilient, he'll be just fine," said Redd, who might have hurried back from his first torn ACL too soon. "I see him coming back for next season, but he has to take his time. That injury happens in our game, happens all the time. That's the good thing about this injury: It's not career-ending. I've had two, so he'll be back."