Ever wonder what actually goes on in an NBA training room? We found out. This week on Sports Doc Talk, Will Sanchez and Dr. Grant Garcia sit down with Dr. Travis Maak — orthopedic sports medicine specialist at the University of Utah, head team physician for the Utah Jazz, and president of the NBA Physicians Association. He has treated Olympic speed skaters, college football players, and some of the best basketball players in the world. And he grew up on a farm in Utah and became a volunteer ski patroller at 17. Dr. Maak walks us through the cartilage technique he developed called AutoCart — using a patient's own harvested cartilage to repair joint defects in the hip and knee, with recovery timelines that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. He also introduces ChondroMatch, a surgical system he created that finally makes precise cartilage transplantation possible in areas of the knee that surgeons previously couldn't reach. Along the way, he breaks down how NBA trade physicals really work, why he believes most athletes never actually need surgery, and why he stopped calling it "injury prevention" altogether — a lesson he learned from an Olympic gold medalist at a conference where that was literally the event title. This one goes deep. Come ready. Find us at sportsdoctalk.com and on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart. Brought to you by The Recovery Shop.

Staying on the Court: Elite Joint Care and NBA Medicine with Dr. Travis Maak

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