LAS VEGAS — Brian Butch is smiling through the pain, but this is no laughing matter.
Butch, a 6-foot-11 rookie center from Wisconsin, dislocated his left kneecap Saturday night in the Nuggets’ second summer league game. He will return to Denver today to determine the full extent of the damage.
“It’s another obstacle to overcome,” Butch said. “I’m going to fight back as hard as I fought to get here, try to rehab as fast as I can to get back as fast as I can.”
Butch will meet with team physician Steve Traina for an evaluation. If surgery is necessary, it will be the first procedure of Butch’s career. When he went down with 4:29 left in the third quarter, Butch knew it was bad.
“I heard the (crowd in the) gym go, ‘Oh,’ and I thought, ‘OK, that’s not a good sign,’ ” he said. “I don’t really know exactly what happened. I thought somebody kicked me. But somebody said I just landed wrong, and it was gone. So, I really don’t know. I just know it hurt. I know it hurt, and I know it looked pretty ugly.”
The Nuggets signed Butch late last season. He had played well in the summer league before suffering the injury.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
