Knee pain in competitive basketball athlete

Dear Ask The Doctor: I am a very competitive basketball athlete. I play monday through friday 2 hours for a practice and 1 hour for a game, and I sometimes go to the gym on weekends. A couple weeks ago I began feeling a cramped feeling behind my knees after a particully intense practice. For the first week after the practice it was very painful. It hurt mostly after I had been siting down for a long period of time and then went to stand up. When I stood up I felt an intense cramped feeling behind my knees. After the first week it started to feel a lot better and the pain started to go away, but three weeks later and I still feel that same cramped feeling behind my knees. It is not nearly as intense as it was to begin with, but it still hurts. I never feel the pain when I am in a game or practice it is only after I stop that it begins to hurt. Then the other day I was practicing and I felt pain in my hamstring on one of my legs, I don't know if this is somehow related to my knee pain but unlike my knees my hamstring hurts while I am running.

Dear Mandy: I would definitely not take a chance with your knee. I think you have either pulled your hamstring muscle in the best case scenario. Worst case scenario is always some sort of ligament or cartilage damage in the knee. Your best bet is to not take a chance. I strongly suggest not playing basketball until you have made and appointment with an orthopedics or sports doctor. If they say everythin is okay, you can start playing again, your risk of injury with the pain you are describing is very high.