Knicks' Julius Randle Says He's 'Ahead of Schedule' in Recovery from Shoulder Injury

New York Knicks star Julius Randle says he is "ahead of schedule" in his recovery from April shoulder surgery.

"I'm good, I'm healthy," Randle told Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero on Thursday's episode of the 7pm in Brooklyn podcast. "I'm getting there. It's a process. It's one of them things that's going to take a long time. I knew that going into it. But I'm ahead of schedule, I'm feeling good. I'm healthy. I'll be ready when the season starts."

Randle last played on Jan. 27, when he dislocated his right shoulder during a game against the Miami Heat.

He underwent surgery on April 9. The Knicks originally stated that he would be re-evaluated in September.

Randle opened up on the podcast about the difficulty of sitting out the latter half of the season as the Knicks climbed out to their first 50-win campaign since 2013 and made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"It was terrible, bro, to be honest," Randle said. "And it was more so the process leading up to it was really the battle, because I had to really go through the process, to see if I could play or not.

"And to get to the point where it was like, 'Man, my body, I just can't do it, I'm hurting, my shoulder's unstable,' whatever it is, that was tough to accept. Because I'm just the type of person that's like, 'Man, I'm getting through anything.'"

The veteran power forward said it took two and a half months of rehab to make the decision as to whether or not to undergo season-ending surgery.

"It was a decision like, alright, do I play, and know I'm going to miss six, seven months after we done playing, so I probably ain't playing until the next year?" Randle said. "And I ain't good, so can I help the team? I don't think I can get a rebound. I can't even fall. I feel like if I fall, my shoulder's gon' come out... I'm dealing with that. I'm also dealing with the part of, man, I feel selfish, like I'm letting the guys down."

The hardest part of making the surgery decision, Randle said, was accepting that he would miss out on playoff run led by a Knicks roster with title hopes thanks to players like Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo and Isaiah Hartenstein.

"I knew going into it, I was like man, this is going to f--king suck, because I knew who our team was," Randle said. "I knew what the guys brought. I knew Jalen, I knew Josh, Donte, Zay, OG, all those, I knew we had a special group... when you have a special group like that, you want to take advantage of it."

This offseason, with both Anuno and Hartenstein set to hit free agency, the Knicks will face a few key decisions about which parts of the 2023-24 roster to retain.

Randle will hope that New York can figure out a way to run back the roster, and that he is healthy to join it, when the season tips off this fall.