The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Wed, Jan 28th 2009, 12:32

Jordan's Playboy.com Blog - Five on 5: Week 11

If you catch the Lakers this week, get ready for a surprise. I’m back healthy, refreshed and playing ball less than five weeks after my surgery. In my first game back last Sunday against the second best team in the West, San Antonio, I had 14 points, a couple of assists and a steal. After our win over the Spurs (99-85), we had the best record in the NBA at 35-8. Yeah, after missing 17 games, you could say I’m psyched to be back — especially with the challenge of playing 22 of our next 31 games on the road.

I’ve got a cool stat from our big game with LeBron and the Cavs last week. It was the highest-rated game on TNT since the Lakers and Mavericks season opener in 2003. TNT estimated that 3.6 million viewers tuned in to watch us beat the Cavs, who were best in the East at the time.

I want to give you guys some insight into how intense and painful rehab is. But first here’s a quiz: in summertime, in what off-court place can you find a virtual NBA All-Star team?

The key to me coming back early from surgery on Christmas Eve for the torn meniscus in my left knee was doing all the little things I was asked to do from day one. After the surgery, I wasn’t dogging it, walking around and being goofy. First, for eight hours a day, I was sitting on my couch using a very cool technology called Game Ready. It includes a knee sleeve and a system that combines rest, ice (cold therapy), compression and elevation. RICE for short. Working on the swelling was crucial because the faster you can get the swelling out, the quicker you can get to work on building up your strength, and get to working out.

I had a great team that worked me hard: the Lakers’ medical and training staff, and a special therapist Judy Seto who works at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthapaedic Clinic in L.A. I’d get up about 7 a.m. and do a rehab program for about four hours a day. Once the swelling was down enough, I was able to do some cardio, starting with work in the pool, and then moving up to a special treadmill, the Ultra-G (“anti-gravity”) machine, which takes off whatever percentage of your body weight that you want. I’d do that for an hour. Later, I graduated to a regular treadmill with my full body weight. But the overall program also included continuing to work on getting my swelling down and under control so I could increase my level of activity.

I’d go to my therapist’s clinic daily — one day, it was myself, the Clippers’ Baron Davis, Barry Bonds and two guys from our Lakers’ Bench Mob unit (Luke Walton and Lamar Odom) all doing therapy. We’d do soft tissue treatment, loosening up my hips and ankles and back, working on getting full range of motion, and working on both sides to make sure that everything was equal and that my mechanics were right. There was a lot of work on my whole body, and it was pretty painful, especially the deep muscle work, stretching my ligaments and stuff. There was also working on the scar tissue below the surface, breaking it down so it can be absorbed by my body. I’ve got to give props to Judy Seto and the clinic, she’s one of the very best. If you went in the summer after the NBA season to the clinic where she works, you’d find an entire NBA All-Star team in there — I’m not not kidding — guys just trying to get various things fixed.

My first court work was shooting free throws, and I got my stroke back real soon. Last week, while I did some more on-court work, even some dunks, we were monitoring my quickness and agility, how I was reacting to doing pivots or landing. Our training staff gave me a strength test and I passed it — my left leg actually tested stronger than my right leg. Everything was tested and I felt fine and they gave me medical clearance to go back to work.

I worked real hard but didn’t do anything I wasn’t supposed to whether taking my medication, remembering to ice the knee, rest, etc. So it was about really being on top of it and really caring to get back. Judy said coming back early could be done but only if everything went perfectly. And everything so far has gone that way. Missing 15-plus games in the middle of a long season has actually left me with a lot of energy. I feel refreshed as if I was starting at the beginning of the season when you’re all pumped up.

At the end of this week, we start that challenging stretch. We already have a solid road record at 12-5, and the key is going to be mental focus and toughness, and how bad we want it. All these games are important because come playoff time, having home-court advantage as a result of your overall record makes a big, big difference. We were on the other side of that equation in the NBA finals last year, not having home-court advantage. Last weekend, we had a team talk about making this run to get that advantage. Team spirit is really high, getting ready for this. We’ve got some tough guys. Lamar toughed it out and came back early. So did Luke. I’m coming back early. Kobe’s playing with a dislocated finger. Those are the types of things when you look into your teammates’ eyes and see that we’ve got one goal and are focused on making this thing happen for real. It’s important to everyone in our organization, and when we put that overall energy all together it breeds confidence.

One last thing when I was rehabbing, I got to see some more college ball and the first game this season between UCLA and USC.

While we’re on the road, I’ll talk more about this great rivalry, about what might’ve happened if I’d chosen to go to another college instead of UCLA, and what it felt like losing in the National Championship game, a one-off game, compared to the NBA finals. If you remember, we gave up a 24-point lead against Boston in Game 4 and lost. If we’d won that one — we won Game 5 in LA — we would’ve been up 3-2 and it would’ve been a completely different series. We’re on a mission this season to make up for that.

Thanks to all the fans for your encouragement, emails and letters. Check out my new dish next week from the road.

— JFarm