Dennis Smith Jr. is already in Madrid to undergo a medical examination and sign his contract with Real Madrid. An examination in which the doctors of the white club will be surprised, if they do not know the history of the American point guard, because the player has a physical anomaly that has rarely been seen in sport. Or at least it has rarely been told.
Smith tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in his senior year of high school, playing for Trinity Christian School in North Carolina. The diagnosis was clear, as in this case of injuries: he was going to be out of basketball for a year. But in less than two months he was back, with all the explosiveness he has been able to demonstrate later in his career. According to him, although it sounds strange, it is due to an anomaly that the surgeon explained to him later.
“I was put in the operating room, a standard procedure, and when I woke up the doctor said to me, ‘You had two cruciates’. It turns out I had an extra one. He told me that 20% of humans have it, but that it can only be discovered through surgery. That made my recovery process… super easy, you know? Obviously I lost strength but once I was able to get out of that… it took me two or three months to get back on the court. They said I was going to be out for a whole year,” the player explained a few months ago on Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem’s podcast. It is a unique case, despite the 20% of humans that the player says, and it is difficult to believe.
A bonus for Chus Mateo
With those superhero conditions and an impressive vertical leap, Dennis Smith Jr. joins Chus Mateo‘s team after seven years of NBA experience. He was the ninth overall pick in the 2017 draft and played 326 games in the NBA for the Mavericks, Knicks, Pistons, Blazers, Hornets and Nets, with whom he played last season.
After failing to find a team in the NBA and having to play for the Wisconsin Herd in the G League, he arrives in Europe to give Real Madrid a defensive and physical boost that will help them in the decisive months of the season.
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