Livingston Keeps Moving Forward Without Looking Back

Shaun Livingston hasn't watched the replay. And he never will.

On Feb. 26, 2007, Livingston, then with the Los Angeles Clippers, crashed to the floor while driving in for a layup on a fast break against Charlotte. His left knee twisted badly as he suffered one of the most gruesome injuries in NBA history.

Before he was carted off on a stretcher, Livingston moaned in agony. Torn was his anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament and his lateral meniscus. He badly sprained his medial collateral ligament and dislocated his kneecap and tibia-femoral joint.

"I've never seen it,'' said the 6-foot-7 point guard, now with Oklahoma City. "I'm definitely not planning to.''

At first Livingston thought his career might be over at 21.

"Initially, you could say that, right after the injury,'' Livingston said. "But after they went ahead with the surgery (on March 13, 2007), I was back on track.''

Yet there's been no fast-forward button for Livingston. He missed all of the 2007-08 season before returning for a short stint with Miami to start last season.

After getting into just four games with the Heat, Livingston was traded to Memphis and then waived. He went to the D-League to continue his comeback before signing a deal with the Thunder for the last two weeks of last season and for this season.

Livingston had some moments late last season, getting into eight games and averaging 7.8 points for a team that was playing out the string. But now Livingston is getting an opportunity for a team that is a legitimate playoff threat.

Livingston missed two weeks early in the season when he had to have a minor surgical procedure to remove staples that were causing inflammation in his surgically-repaired knee. Then Kevin Ollie, the backup point behind Russell Westbrook, was lost in late November to a knee injury that will sideline him until the end of this month.

Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks first turned to Mike Wilks as Ollie's replacement. But for the past five games he's gone with Livingston, who is getting a real chance to resurrect his career for the up-and-coming Thunder (12-11).

"It's another opportunity. I'm happy to just be playing. It's a blessing.''
- Shaun Livingston "It's another opportunity,'' Livingston said. "I'm happy to just be playing. It's a blessing.''

There sometimes are shades of the old Livingston. He had seven rebounds and three assists in a game last week against Golden State. On Monday at Denver, he used his eight-inch height advantage to rise over Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson to drill a nifty jumper.

His statistics, though, aren't blowing anybody away. In seven games this season, he's averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 assists over 11.5 minutes.

"There's certainly things that I lack athletically,'' said Livingston, comparing himself to before the injury, when he was averaging 9.3 points for the 2006-07 Clippers and appeared well on his way to being a fine NBA player after being taken with the No. 4 pick in 2004 directly from high school. "Speed and quickness and the initial burst and a maybe a little bit of jumping. But I'll sacrifice a little bit of that just to be able to play the game. I can still play in this league and make a difference.''

Just seeing Livingston on the court serves as an inspiration to his teammates. Forward Nick Collison said he's "really impressed with him with all that he's been through.'' Ollie feels likewise.

"To see him being out there playing, you look at a guy who has persevered and gotten through certain things in his career, and he's not given up,'' Ollie said. "That fires up everybody when you see a player who's going through those things and you know he's a better person for it . ... He's continuing to bounce back and continuing to fight and hopefully he'll have success this season and beyond and get back to the position he wants to be.''

It's taken countless hours of rehab work for Livingston to get back to where he is now. His daily routine consists of hooking his left leg to a simulated ice machine as many as seven times a day. Livingston continues to wear a brace on his knee, although he has shifted to a lightweight one.

"It's good to see him back and playing,'' said Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, who once watched Livingston hand out 14 assists in Game 5 of a 2006 first-round playoff series, when the Clippers closed out the Nuggets 4-1. "It's a long road back any time you have an injury like that. But he's on his way back.''

Livingston said when he first returned to the court it was difficult mentally remembering what had happened to his knee. But he's made great strides in overcoming that hurdle.

"Initially, it was (tough mentally) coming back from the injury,'' Livingston said. "But I've now gotten better and better with my confidence. I want to get back to where I was. But it's one day at a time. It won't happen overnight, although the injury did.''

The injury actually happened in a split second. It's one Livingston never plans to revisit.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com and on Twitter @christomasson.