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Grizzlies notebook
By Ronald Tillery (Contact)
Saturday, November 24, 2007

SAN ANTONIO -- Suddenly, Grizzlies rookie Mike Conley Jr. and Portland's Greg Oden share more than just Ohio State memories and an agent.

When the "best friends" talk now, they won't have on-court stories to tell. Conley and Oden, both of whom are represented by Mike Conley Sr., will likely encourage each other as they deal with their respective injuries.

Oden is out for the season after undergoing microfracture knee surgery. Conley learned earlier this week that a strained right shoulder actually is a posterior labral tear that could keep him out for nearly a month.

Conley, though, appeared relieved that the injury didn't require surgery.

"The doctor came in and was smiling," Conley said. "It could have been a lot worse. They were expecting surgery."

Fortunately for Conley, his first sports injury happened in the lower, back part of his shoulder. Surgery would have been necessary had the tear been higher and in the front.

"It's something you don't want to have to deal with," Conley said. "It's not the way I pictured coming in and impacting my rookie year.

"But it's something I have to go through and another obstacle I have to overcome to be on the court. I'm going to keep working hard and be ready to go whenever I come back."

Conley said his rehabilitation includes "a lot of motion and strengthening exercises" at least twice a week.

"I'm pretty weak in certain areas concerning basketball," Conley said.

"I'm doing a lot of conditioning trying to stay in shape. ... It's progressing. The more we work on it the more it will get stronger. But it's still pretty sore."

Conley suffered the injury last Saturday during a fall just before halftime at Dallas. The 20-year-old is averaging 5.6 points and leads all rookies with 4.2 assists in 14.4 minutes over five games.

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