Bynum confirms he injured himself bowling

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Center Andrew Bynum confirmed a report Sunday night that he injured his left knee while bowling last Saturday. Bynum – who has yet to play for the Sixers because of a bone bruise and cartilage problems in his right knee – said he now has the same issue in his left knee.

“Obviously, I think it happened bowling, to be honest,” Bynum said on Sunday before the Sixers-Cavaliers game at the Wells Fargo Center. “I don’t think anybody could have told me I couldn’t do that. I was doing squatting and low-impact training. So, it is what it is. The cartilage is in a weakened state. That’s what the doctors tell me. Now, I’m going through the same thing that I have on the right, in the left. It’s identical.”

On Friday, Bynum told the media that he suffered “a setback” in his left knee but did not disclose how it happened. Bynum, who said he bowls regularly, was asked what he did, specifically, to hurt himself.

“I didn’t do anything,” Bynum said. “I didn’t twist it or fall. I just kind of broke off cartilage and it made the bone bruise bigger.”

The Sixers' center said he didn’t notice his left knee had swelled until after he was done that day. So how, exactly, does something like that happen?

“That’s the question that all the doctors kind of have, as well as myself,” Bynum said. “You [go bowling] – it’s relatively nothing. Three steps. So what happens when you play? That’s the most important thing and why everyone is being so cautious. I can’t answer that and they can’t either. We’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Bynum added that he has to “bide my time” while the doctors figure out what happens next.

“I have an issue with my knees,” Bynum said. “We’re trying to resolve it. There’s really nothing to do. There’s no surgical procedures that would help or are safe to do at the moment."

Earlier in the week, Byum and general manager Tony DiLeo told the media that the 25-year-old center would continue with low impact training for five more weeks, at which point he would theoretically return to the practice court. From there, they estimated that Bynum would need an additional 1-to-4 weeks of practice before appearing in a game.

It’s unclear whether that timetable has changed. Bynum said he’s seen “pretty much every specialist” and that the plan now is simply to “wait for the cartilage to harden up.”

“I’m waiting for the docs to tell me something," Bynum said, "and they’re waiting for me to tell them my knees don’t hurt.”

In September, Bynum flew to Germany to undergo Orthokine therapy on his right knee. One media member asked Bynum whether he thought something “went awry” with that procedure.

“It’s a possibility,” Bynum said. “I came back pretty good from Germany, but then I had an incident in a relatively short period after. So I have no idea."

A year ago, in a truncated NBA regular season, Bynum played 60 games for the Los Angeles Lakers. He appeared in an additional 12 postseason games. Over that span, Bynum averaged more than 35 minutes per outing. Is it possible that his knees -- which have troubled Bynum in the past – were adversely affected by playing so much last season in such a short time period?

“That’s one theory,” Bynum allowed. “Another is what’s going on with the injections. Also I just have bad cartilage."

Despite his injury issues and the acknowledgment that he hurt himself during the activity, Bynum said he didn’t “see anything wrong with going to bowl.”

“I’m sure some people would feel like that,” Bynum said. “But I’m kind of taking the position, if that happens bowling, what happens dunking?”

E-mail John Gonzalez at jgonzalez@comcastsportsnet.com