Off the Dribble: Knicks' Walsh to Have Surgery

8:53 p.m. | Updated
Donnie Walsh, the Knicks’ president, said he would have hip-replacement surgery next week and would return to the team as quickly as possible. Walsh, 69, has relied first on a wheelchair and then a walker since undergoing neck surgery in June to remove bone spurs.

The hip procedure, Walsh said, would allow him to walk without the use of the walker or a cane. He said he made the decision after consulting with multiple doctors.

“They both said, ‘Your legs are strong, your neck is healed, your balance is fine,’ ” Walsh said Wednesday before the Knicks played the Golden State Warriors. “When you disrupt your spinal cord and lose your bearings, you have to learn how to walk again. I’ve gotten through a lot. My legs are much stronger. I can walk down steps if I’m holding on to a wall but if I don’t have a cane or something. But if I’m walking alone and I have to dip, it throws me off balance.”

Although he will still need a cane immediately after the procedure — which is typical — Walsh said he expected to return to the team a few days after the operation, although that may be an overly optimistic timetable. He also reiterated that he had no intention of retiring any time soon.

Walsh also disclosed that he fell during the spring, before having neck surgery, while he was scouting in Europe. In 2008, Walsh had surgery to remove cancerous growths from his tongue.

Walsh is in the final season of his contract, and the Knicks have not yet picked up his option for 2011-12. Meanwhile, Isiah Thomas has increasingly spoken about his desire to return to his former job as a Knicks executive. Just last week, he told ESPN that there was not a day in the week in which he does not think about eventually replacing Walsh.

Whether the various physical challenges Walsh has recently faced will have any impact on Thomas’s chances of returning remains to be seen.

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