The Doctor Tom Brady and Leonardo DiCaprio Call When They Get Hurt

Athletes seeing ElAttrache often find themselves, quite suddenly, at a low point in their careers, maybe their lives. Many have described their bond with ElAttrache as a singular relationship. “It was the first time I ever felt, in the football business, someone being completely honest with me,” the receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., told me. ElAttrache often becomes a fixture in his patients’ lives. He did Tom Brady’s knee surgery in 2008, then regularly flew to Boston during the rehab. Brady now considers him a best friend. ElAttrache was one of Kobe Bryant’s few confidants. Rob Pelinka, Bryant’s longtime agent, told me, “When those types of individuals meet one another, they just know. That was his guy.” Surgery is perhaps the only time a superstar must relinquish control completely to someone else. Bryant once spent the night before a shoulder surgery shooting around at the private basketball court of Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times. “My wife was screaming at him, saying, ‘Kobe, what are you doing?’ ” Soon-Shiong once recalled. “He says, ‘It’s broken. Neal’s going to fix it tomorrow anyway.’ ”