Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dragic on watching from afar, ‘the hardest way to do it’
For two weeks, Goran Dragic lived the experience of a Miami Heat fan during a western trip — up deep into the night, on the edge of his seat, living vicariously through his television.
“Probably that’s the hardest way to do it,” he said with a laugh Wednesday morning, “to watch at home and, ‘Why you guys didn’t do that?’ ”
And so it went, with Dragic remaining behind in South Florida to rehab the severely sprained left ankle that left him sidelined since Feb. 5.
For the veteran point guard, it was part of the reality of being with a team that has been less than whole almost the entire season.
While Dragic was back with the team for Wednesday morning’s shootaround at AmericanAirlines Arena, ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the visiting Toronto Raptors, he worked at that session with the Heat having played only 66 minutes prior to Wednesday night with Dragic, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo on the court together this season.
“It’s too bad that we couldn’t play more minutes together,” Dragic said of the impact of injuries and pandemic protocols. “Maybe for something else, it’s good. We hit adversity right away. I think when we make the playoffs, we’re already going to be battle tested.
“Luckily for us, we have a lot of guys who are playing well, who can step in and can finish the job. That’s why we have a deep team. I try to look at those things on a positive note and hopefully now when I come back and when [Avery Bradley]
comes back, basically have a full roster and try to play as good as we can.”
In the meantime, the Heat continue to deal with a losing record, and now, as well, with the team snubbed in the selection for All-Stars, with Butler and Adebayo bypassed.
“Definitely I was surprised,” Dragic said. “Both of those guys deserve to be there. What they did last year was amazing. Even this year, when they were playing games, they put huge numbers up there. Definitely, they deserve it.”
The 34-year-old veteran said it was difficult to be away from the team, but also necessary.
“It was tough,” he said. “I want to be a part of that. But I had to think
about my recovery. Luckily, we got technology, so I was on FaceTime most of the time with the guys and talked to them and wished them luck for the game. I watched every game.”
Assistant coach Chris Quinn brought him into the locker room virtually.
“I was texting with coaches, players,” he said. “Then I FaceTimed a couple of times before the game, and Quinny went around the locker room, and said hello to everybody, and just wished them good luck. And that was it, basically. Texting and just trying to stay as much as possible connected with the team.
“It’s a little bit different when they were on the road. I had my hands full here with my recovery and tried to get better, and a lot of work.”
With Dragic out, second-year guard Kendrick Nunn stepped up in the interim.
“I mean we’ve already seen that he can do those things,” Dragic said. “Last season, he had a tremendous season. Before the [March 2020 pandemic-shutdown] break, he was putting up the same numbers. So we know what he’s capable of doing. The only question with him was consistency.
“Finally now, I think the last eight or nine games, he has shown that. He was tremendous for this team, and he still is the player that we want him to be, aggressive, to take shots and to make decisions.”