Boston’s Kemba Walker, left, battled a knee injury before the NBA season was put on hiatus. He continues to rehab the injury while in isolation at home, but says it requires a lot of discipline. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
Boston Celtics guard Kemba Walker was slowly working his way back from soreness in his left knee when the NBA was forced to shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He’s been quiet since being forced into isolation, but he made an appearance with Brian Scalabrine during a rebroadcast of the Celtics’ early season win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Quarantine has been very interesting,” he said during the video chat. “There’s not much to do. Just around the house. Working out a little bit, as much as I can, trying to do as much as I can do. But for the most part, just relaxing. There’s really not much to do.”
Walker could be the Celtic most impacted by the hiatus and isolation because of his continued recovery from the left knee issue. Without access to team facilities, Walker is left to continue his rehab on his own in his home.
“The knee is doing well,” Walker said. “It’s difficult because I don’t have anyone around to get me some treatment or anything like that, so I have to do my own stuff, which I’m trying my best to do as much as possible. Still trying to stay on top of things, so at this point, it’s all about discipline.”
No matter what he does at home, he may have to be the most careful Celtic should the season resume at some point.
“There’s ultimately going to be a need for kind of reacclimation to just the individual drills, to ramp up your own individual conditioning,” Coach Brad Stevens recently said. “And that’s assuming that we get back to playing. I know they’re bouncing around a ton of scenarios right now, but there’s no doubt that there would be a kind of getting in shape, reacclimation phase that would have to be a part of that.”
Walker has missed 14 games this season for a variety of reasons, but the knee soreness has cost him the most time. It flared up after the All-Star game, requiring a procedure to drain the knee of fluid, which cost him all of Boston’s postbreak trip to the west coast. Walker also missed the back half of a back-to-back in Cleveland as part of his rehab plan, but did play on a minutes restriction in the Celtics’ final three games prior to the hiatus.
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