Utah Jazz rookie Rudy Gobert has surgical procedure to remove appendix

The Denver Nuggets made a draft day trade with the Utah Jazz last year, and the result was that the Jazz picked up a freak of nature in Rudy Gobert. The Rookie had an up and down season, and his development was checkered with short stints in the NBA Developmental League, countless DNP-CDs, and a preseason surgery to remove an ingrown toe nail. Gobert played during the summer league with the toe injury and had the surgery after. Today Gobert had another surgery, his second in his rookie year.

The Utah Jazz announced today that Gobert had his appendix removed in Santa Barbara. He was there at P3 to work out with Trey Burke, Ian Clark, and others. Due to his persistent pain in his lower right quadrant of his abdomen he was examined, and it was decided to have the surgery immediately. (It is a surgical emergency) Why would an individual have their appendix removed? Well, there are a few reasons. I know, not just because of my education, but because one of my brothers had his removed years ago.

Usually you have an appendectomy because you probably have appendicitis. I'm assuming that he didn't suddenly develop something like Meckel's diverticulum and have an abscess. So I am just guessing that it was appendicitis. And going off of how quickly this was discovered and removed, it almost is 100% certainly appendicitis. I'm not going to bore you with what appendicitis is, and how does it happen. But it's basically a traffic jam in an unused off-ramp in your GI tract. And as a result, bad things can happen. Because humans do not use their appendix (it's a vestigial organ which kinda suggests that evolution still, kind of, a constant struggle of use and disuse, which is harder to accept because we biologists are trained to stray away from the teaching of Lamarckism) , there's no problem with losing one. It's not like he lost a toe or something. (N.B. During his ingrown toe-nail surgery he also did not lose a toe.)

So two surgeries in one season is usually a warning sign for a bigman, especially the virtual biggest and longest of bigmen in the NBA today. But the first was a minor issue that limited his mobility and speed. And it was corrected, and as an acute injure, will not be likely to happen again. The second was a one and done problem of the GI tract. He can never get appendicitis again. And he can regulate his gut flora in other ways.

So what's the big deal? This is just the good news, right?

Yes. The bad news is that depending on his recovery he could be out of action for the next 2-4 weeks. So right off the bat this means that instead of doing his physical training at P3 right now he has to sit out. Secondly, this may mean that he could be a scratch for the Vegas Summer League. It's unlikely, but if there was an infection or something that sets his recovery back he could be out more than a month. And if that's the case then we don't get to see him in Sin City.

Is it likely that he'll be out 5 weeks? No. But that's based upon normal recovery times. I did not get any access to Gobert, his agent, or the team. So I don't know what the full details are. But from what I understand, this needed to happen now, and I am glad it happened now, in June -- instead of say December or March.

Get well soon, Rudy. Sorry you left part of yourself in Santa Barbara. I know you are going to be out of commission for a while, but it will give you a lot of time to watch Netflix from your apartment in Salt Lake City while your team mates are out playing.

Like this, but for your stomach, and for like 2 weeks if you heal quickly.

If you are curious, you can watch this type of surgery online.