From the Seattle Times:
Taken 10th overall in the draft, the 7-foot Hawes, 19, has been vague about his knee problems during his one-year with the Washington Huskies and while he was a standout at Seattle Prep. He told reporters in Sacramento that he underwent microfracture surgery when he was 14. It's believed he had at least one procedure on his knee in high school and last year before the Husky season. The fear of another surgery may have prompted him to enter the draft with three years of eligibility remaining.
This whole 'not being honest about how many times doctors sliced open your knee' isn't very awesome, Spencer. For what it's worth, The Bee's Sam Amick kind-of debunks the Seattle report, sort of.
UPDATE: Amick has updated his blog post, further debunking that Shawes has kept anything from anyone. "[A] Seattle Post-Intelligencer story from Feb. 7, 2004, states Hawes had "three surgeries" that year but makes no mention of microfracture, chances are, because the procedure and the dreaded M-word hadn't become part of the sports culture just yet." Hawes hasn't hidden anything. But it's still distressing... although user jjs, a brand new face around here, claims to have spoken with Hawes this morning. And they say everything is fine now. Barrel of salt until we can surmise how much truth jjs speaks.