Waiters on rebound
After rough year, Instagram post shows a changed man, physically and mentally
MIAMI — Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters has a message for those who doubted his ability to get back into basketball shape, offering words and video evidence, as he prepares for the upcoming season.
Coming off January 2018 ankle and foot surgery, Waiters battled weight and conditioning issues during an uneven 2018-19 season, creating doubts about his ability to return to the prime fitness that defined his 2016-17 breakout with the team, an emergence that led to a four-year, $60 million contract.
Then came a Monday post on Instagram, with video evidence of a changed man.
It was Waiters’ words, however, that might have been most striking:
“Last year when I came off 1 of the most depressing & frustrating times of my life. Coming off injury & not feeling like myself nor looking like myself I was in a dark place mentally & physically, Because the game I love so much was taken away due to season ending surgery.
“Now a days with this social media ran world they laughed at me made jokes etc not knowing what I was battling or going through everyday. So instead of me joining the circus I told myself you from (Philly) you’ve been through worst s— in your life than this.
“So I promise myself I would work my a— off & get back to where I was before the injury.
“I’m not done yet but I kno somebody in the world prolli needed to hear this. Stay positive block out the outside noise & grind.”
Heat President Pat Riley, in his season-ending comments, discussed Waiters’ conditioning and the plan set forward along with coach Erik Spoelstra.
“There is no doubt that Dion Waiters is a level away from his maximum potential,” Riley said after the close to the Heat’s 39-43 lottery season. “And he really has been playing this year on 1 1⁄2 ankles. I’m not making that as an excuse. The surgery that he had was extensive. It wasn’t just to fix one part of his ankle. It was absolutely something more than that. And it took him a year. And a little bit like Gordon Hayward, you could see him sort of gaining his stride at the end of the season.
“But from a conditioning standpoint, Spo and I are right on the same page, whatever number he comes back at, I think it’s going to be to his benefit, and we’ll
be able to see the explosiveness and he’ll be able to finish. He’ll get to the rim a little more. But he was impacted by his ankle. And while he weighed in at numbers that were acceptable, that’s where the tightening of the screws will come into play. And it won’t be a single screwdriver. I’ll be using one of those Black & Deckers. It’s go hard.”
Which, based on both the words and pictures, has been the case.
Spoelstra offered similar thoughts at season’s end.
“He just simply has to get there, and that’s it,” he said. “This is a really important summer for Dion Waiters. He’s healthy now. He feels good. He has to work. The next five months, he has to put in a body of work that changes his physique that gets him down to that optimal weight and body fat, which he was not at at the end of the year.
“If he’s there the first day of training camp, he’ll have the role and impact that he’s looking for. If he’s not — Pat and I are on the same page about this — he won’t. And that’s it. Because he can move the needle in this game when he’s physically right and in world-class shape. That’ll be the focus this summer. I have not forgotten about the player that he was two years ago. It’s time to get back to that.”