Becky Hammon says she only thinks about her surgically repaired right knee when someone asks her about it.

And since she went into last night’s game against the 2-11 Charlotte Sting at the Garden scoring a team-high 15.2 points per game for the 4-9 Liberty, it doesn’t figure to come up much.

But it was three years ago last night that the guard crumpled to the floor with a torn ACL in a game against the Detroit Shock at MSG and missed the rest of the season.

While the injury is fairly common, and those who suffer it routinely come back, there clearly is no guarantee that a player will return – and if they do, that they will be as effective as they were before the surgery.

“I never worried about that,” Hammon said. “I knew that other people had done it, so if it was possible, I was going to do it.” The next year, Hammon recovered enough to score 13.5 ppg, but she said she still felt the effects of what happened.

“That first year back was tough,” Hammon said. “I felt it and thought about it a lot.

I definitely wasn’t myself. I couldn’t be with that huge brace I had to wear.” Whether it was the cumbersome brace or the thought in the back of her mind that her knee would give out again, Hammon was never completely comfortable.

That changed a year ago.

Although her stats remained virtually identical (13.9 ppg), Hammon said she considered herself a different player.

“Last year, I finally didn’t think about it anymore and could play like I wanted to again,” Hammon said. “It takes two years to get back to full speed.” Nothing has changed so far this season, except for her value on the team.

Hammon is the only returning starter from last year’s squad and the Liberty’s inexperience has been obvious, particularly very early in the season. Although the team went into last night’s game against the Muggsy Bogues-coached Sting having won two in a row for the first time all year, Hammon was still being relied upon more than she ever has before.

“That’s fine with me,” Hammon said. “Obviously, I want all the help I can get, but I don’t mind being the focal point.” Coach Pat Coyle, who was an assistant on Richie Adubato’s staff when Hammon got hurt, isn’t surprised that she got back to where she was before.

“She’s a competitor and I knew no one was going to work harder than she was to get back and that’s what she did. I’m just glad it worked out for her,” Coyle said.