San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Cousins looking to beat the odds
Few who suffer Achilles tears return to form
DALLAS — Dominique Wilkins could hear the melancholy in DeMarcus Cousins’ voice last June. Five months removed from a season-ending Achilles injury, Cousins’ career was suddenly in doubt: Would anyone pick him up in free agency? Could he play at an All-Star level again?
During that phone conversation, Wilkins told Cousins not to worry about his critics because “no one knows your heart like you do.” The Hall of Famer’s message resonated. Twenty-six years earlier, Wilkins was 32 when he tore his right Achilles tendon, only to come back nine months later and make two more All-NBA teams.
As Cousins prepares for his Warriors debut Friday night against the Clippers, he knows that Wilkins’ story is an outlier. Players with torn Achilles tendons are more likely to never play another game than to return to their pre-injury form. Cousins’ size — 6-foot-11, 270 pounds — only makes his odds of a full recovery steeper.
But Wilkins, who has mentored Cousins throughout the rehab process, is resolute that Cousins will follow his example and become an exception. This is a 28-year-old who tends to be at his best when others give him little chance. Fueled by a desire to silence his doubters, Cousins has already wowed teammates
in 5-on-5 scrimmages.
“People always doubt people first before they give people credit for how quickly they can come back from those types of injuries, but it depends on the person,” Wilkins said. “I think DeMarcus is a guy who’s put the work in and is going to be fine.”
The breakthrough for Cousins came in the past couple of weeks, when he started to show flashes of dominance in workouts. Finally, after almost 12 months of rehab, Cousins looked self-assured as he leapt for rebounds and threw down dunks. Instead of worrying about his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon, the four-time All-Star was able to play on instinct.
This was enough for general manager Bob Myers, Dr. Rick Celebrini — Golden State’s director of sports medicine and performance — and head coach Steve Kerr to sit down with Cousins and pinpoint that Clippers game as his return date. Though fans might see Cousins’ debut as a victory, the Warriors view it as merely the next phase in his rehab.
Little has been decided about his role other than that he’ll start. Depending on how Cousins looks and feels, Kerr will adjust his minutes up or down. Those inside the organization don’t anticipate Cousins being at or near 100 percent for weeks, perhaps months.
“I’m getting acclimated with the guys, finding my wind, finding my legs,” Cousins said. “I’m not expecting to come out and score 50 points or anything like that. It’ll be great if I could, but that’s not my expectations. Just
Notable NBA Achilles injuries ELGIN BAYLOR, LAKERS Age when injured: Injury date: Pre-injury: Post-injury: CHAUNCEY BILLUPS, CLIPPERS Age when injured: Injury date: Pre-injury: Post-injury: ELTON BRAND, CLIPPERS Age when injured: Injury date: Pre-injury: Post-injury: KOBE BRYANT, LAKERS Age when injured: Injury Date: Pre-injury: Post-injury: PATRICK EWING, KNICKS Age when injured: Injury date: Pre-injury: Post-injury:
WESLEY MATTHEWS JR., TRAIL BLAZERS
36
Nov. 27, 1970 Oct. 15, 1971 27.5 ppg, 13.6 rpg, 837 games
11.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 9 games
Return date:
35
Feb. 6, 2012 Nov. 28, 2012 15.5 points, 5.5 assists, 1,002 games 6.2 points, 2.2 assists, 41 games
Return date:
28
Aug. 3, 2007 April 2, 2008 20.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 606 games 9.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 452 games
Return date:
34
April 12, 2013 Dec. 12, 2014 25.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1,239 games
18.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 107 games
Return date:
36
June 1, 1999 Dec. 10, 1999 23.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 977 games
9.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 206 games
Return date:
29
March 5, 2015
Oct. 28, 2015, with Mavericks 14.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 441 games 13.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 121 games
DOMINIQUE WILKINS, HAWKS Age when injured:
Injury date:
Pre-injury:
Post-injury:
32
Jan. 28, 1992 Nov. 6, 1992 26.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 762 games
25.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 312 games
Return date:
coming out and being a part of the team. That’s good enough for me.”
The Achilles tendon, which connects the calf muscle to the heel bone, is the thickest and strongest tendon in the body. It’s designed to stretch, allowing the tendon to absorb force when an athlete lands from a jump, then provide power when he or she pushes off the ball of the foot.
Since a basketball player’s livelihood depends on the ability to jump and change direction, Achilles injuries are often career-altering. Much of the rehab process revolves around rebuilding strength in the calf muscles post-surgery. Before being cleared for contact work, Cousins spent months slogging through hydrotherapy treatments, light jogs, weightlifting sessions and calisthenics.
“Sometimes, people just never get that strength back,” said Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon at CedarsSinai’s Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles who consults for the Lakers. “If you’re a step slow or lose some explosion, obviously as an elite NBA player, that could determine whether you’re able to stay in the league or not.”
A 2013 research paper published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that seven of the 18 NBA players (38.9 percent) who sustained major Achilles injuries between 1988 and 2011 did not return to the league. Those who did come back missed an average of 55.9 games the rest of their career, with only eight of the 11 playing a second season.
The handful of players who resuscitated their careers post-injury saw their playing time and performance plummet. A 2015 CBS Sports study echoed those findings, detailing how the 14 players who returned from Achilles injuries since 1992 saw both their fieldgoal and three-point shooting percentages drop, on average.
Though such injuries tend to affect players over 30 the most (Cousins was 27 when he got hurt), they also especially take a toll on players Cousins’ size. Elton Brand, who was a similar age (28) and size (6-foot-9, 254 pounds) as Cousins when he tore his Achilles in 2007, wasn’t the same player afterward.
A two-time All-Star before the injury, Brand didn’t average more than 15 points or 8.3 rebounds in any of his eight remaining seasons. Brand told InsideSoCal.com, “I didn’t have the same explosiveness that I had. I regained and then I relost it. I didn’t have it. I had to change my game a little bit where I jumped off two feet, and I was a little bit slower.”
In the decade-plus since Brand’s Achilles injury, medical advances