Knicks Tyson Chandler Says He Was Injured, Sick During Playoffs

During his exit interview this morning, New York Knicks big man Tyson Chandler not only admitted that he had been dealing with a neck injury for the playoffs but also had been sick with strep throat that lead to weight loss, hurting his game.

Per Howard Beck:

"Illness led to major weight loss, which Chandler said impacted him more than any lingering effects from neck injury."

The neck injury was somewhat known, but the strep throat and “major” weight loss weren’t.

Beck made sure to mention that Chandler had been talking about a variety of illnesses he’s had in recent months and he couldn’t confirm the actual timeline of Chandler’s strep throat (Chandler says it was around the start of the playoffs, caught it from his daughter), though the Knicks center attempted to make it clear that the weight loss was one of the reasons behind his sub-par play, saying it was far more debilitating than the neck injury.

Chandler had averaged 10.4 points and 10.7 rebounds in the regular season, numbers that dipped to a woeful 5.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in the Knicks playoff run. Chandler’s win share also dropped from 9.3 in the regular season to 1.2, a pretty hefty drop for the 30-year-old center.