NBA: Each team’s greatest comeback from injury in franchise history

Greatest injury comeback in New Orleans Pelicans history: Jamal Mashburn

Right knee injury

Jamal Mashburn got off to quite the start to his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks. Alongside Jason Kidd and Jim Jackson, Mashburn became a force to be reckoned with right away, producing 19.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest as a rookie.

During his second year, he put up a career-high 24.1 points per game to go along with 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest.

Then during the 1995-96 season, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery 18 games into things, slowing down his progress as an up-and-coming star for the Mavericks. Off-the-court issues soon played a role in his being traded to the Miami Heat.

During the 1999-00 season, he put up 17.5 points, an improvement from his first season with the Heat, but once the season was over, he was traded once again to the New Orleans Hornets, back when the Pelicans were nonexistent.

Mashburn caught fire once he joined the Hornets. It’s where he made the only All-Star appearance of his career, during the 2002-03 season, when he averaged 21.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists per contest.

He also earned third-team All-NBA honors, the first time he was given that award as well. Mashburn matched his career-high of 50 points once again with the Hornets, previously achieved with the Heat.

He put up 50 points in a 125-123 overtime victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on 17-of-33 shooting from the floor, 12-of-12 shooting from the free-throw stripe and 4-of-7 shooting from the field.

It marked the final comeback of his tenure before his injury would come back once again the following year. He appeared in just 18 games during the 2003-04 season before sitting out the 2004-05 season after undergoing microfracture surgery.

He was unable to return to the floor despite being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and in March 2006, he announced his retirement from the NBA.