Mickael Pietrus has received knee treatment from Shaolin monks
Sports medicine advances at a startling rate, with injuries that once seemed career-ending like ACL tears turning into relatively fixable issues within less than a decade. Yet those advances don't just come from team doctors and surgeons -- players often seek them out, too. The most publicized has been Kobe Bryant's interest in platelet-rich plasma therapy, but there are others, too.
However, I'm pretty sure only Mickael Pietrus has traveled to China to seek treatment from Shaolin monks. From The Sporting News (via EOB):
Pietrus missed the last 12 games of the NBA season, and did not play for France in EuroBasket or pursue overseas opportunities this summer, because of the injury.
Pietrus traveled to the Shaolin Temple in central China's Henan Province, where he tried "several traditional Chinese medicine therapies, including acupuncture, massage and some unique remedies administered by Shaolin monks," the Chinese site What's In Xiamen reported.
The monks have run their own hospital for more than a millenium and once treated Shaquille O'Neal, so it's not as if Pietrus ventured into some shack and told a bunch of old men to put needles in his knee. Still, it's a pretty rare decision for a professional athlete. Usually, you'd expect them to go to the finest hospitals in the cities they know best.
Pietrus' rehab has not been publicized yet, but I assume he has moved to Staten Island to work with the Shaolin monks of the Wu-Tang Clan. Workouts include chessboxing and learning from several experts known as Genius, the Chef, and the Ghostface Killah. When Pietrus is finished, he will be nothing to mess with.
