Trail Blazers center Festus Ezeli to have rare knee surgery

 Knee surgery was oddly delayed for Trail Blazers center Festus Ezeli, and now we know why.

Dating back to before Christmas, season-ending knee surgery seemed inevitable for Portland Trail Blazer center Festus Ezeli. The news became official on Saturday, with Ezeli slated to undergo surgery on his left knee next week and thus miss the entire 2016-17 season.

The reason for a long delay to have surgery could be explained by some hope for Ezeli to play this season, and then reports Portland was trying to trade him before the Feb. 23 deadline. But now, there was actually a medical reason for postponing the procedure.

According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, Ezeli’s knee surgery will involve a cadaver donor. A donor has apparently been sought for months, but finding a match for a man that stands 6-foot-11 has been an obvious challenge. A donor has been recently submitted though, so Ezeli can finally have his knee surgery.

Ezeli may be the first NBA player to use a cadaver tissue donation, but he won’t be the first pro athlete to do so. As Haynes pointed out, Carsom Palmer had the surgery while with the Cincinnati Bengals.

For Ezeli, Haynes cited a source that passed along a possible recovery time of up to a year.