Warrior Cousins preps for comeback.
Star talked to players who also dealt with Achilles injuries
OAKLAND >> Through a series of phone calls, DeMarcus Cousins developed a blueprint on how to overcome the biggest challenge of his nine-year NBA career.
Long before he could even begin his rehab from a torn left Achilles tendon, Cousins contacted one of the NBA’s best dunkers (Dominique Wilkins), one of the league’s best scorers (Kobe Bryant), a former teammate (Rudy Gay) and a 10-year veteran (Dallas Mavericks guard Wesley Mathews). Shortly after signing with the Warriors last year, Cousins spoke with the Warriors’ other free-agent acquisition (Jonas Jerebko).
The topic of conversation? Trying to come back from a torn Achilles tendon. Cousins, 28 suffered his injury Jan. 26 and has been rehabbing ever since then. Friday, he is planning to play for
the first time in almost a year.,
“I wasn’t really looking for a specific answer to get through it,” Cousins said of the chats with fellow sufferers. “I wanted to see what each guy’s mindset was and compare it to my own.”
Each players’ journey has been different. They mostly stressed similar messages, though.
While Wilkins advised Cousins
“not to listen to the critics,” Gay instructed Cousins, “don’t feel sorry for yourself.” A few months following Cousins’ surgery on Jan. 31, 2018, Mathews told him “to take his time.” Shortly after the two became teammates last summer, Jerebko argued the same thing.
“We’re going to need you, but when we need you is when we’re talking playoffs’” Jerebko recalled saying. “‘We’re going to need you in the long run. So don’t stress anything or push yourself too hard. Let it come.’”
During a year that he called “extremely humbling,” Cousins attributed his comeback toward staying stubborn and leaning on his family for support. He also found it helpful to have informal conversations with NBA players that had also suffered an Achilles injury.
“To say I was consistent with contact, no. I wanted to go and learn this process on my own and figure it out on my own,” Cousins said. “Every guy is different and every guy handles differently. The mindset is different. I know myself and how to get through situations.”
All of the players that Cousins consulted navigated their own Achilles injury with varying success and challenges.
Bryant, then 35, injured his left Achilles — same one Cousins hurt — toward the end of the 2012-13 season. He returned eight months later, but played only six games before needing season-ending left knee surgery. Bryant was limited to 35 games the following season and in 2015-16, his farewell season, his scoring average (17.6) and shooting percentage (35.8 percent) were his worst of the millennium.
Gay, who tore his left Achilles tendon in January 2017 at age 35, accepted a reducing scoring role last season with San Antonio (11.5 points per game) compared to his career averages (17.8) while still tying his career-high in shooting percentage (47.1 percent). This season, Gay has increased his scoring (13.6 points per game) while posting new career-highs in shooting percentages from the field (51.1 percent) and from long (41.5 percent).
“If you work hard, then good things will happen for you,” Gay said. “It’s still a blessing I can come out here and say I’m here and able to do some of the things I do. But the real blessing is the fact I was able to push myself every day.”
Mathews, then 29, ruptured his left Achilles tendon
in 2014-15 with Portland. He came back the following season, but has failed to reach his career shooting percentage (42.7) in each of the last four seasons.
“You have to take your time, have confidence in your body and keep the same work ethic,” Mathews said. “There’s nothing easy about the process. It’s just knowing what you want to do and knowing when to get back on the court.”
Jerebko returned to the court after missing his entire second NBA season in 2010-11. After the Detroit Pistons drafted him at No. 39 over in 2009, Jerebko posted promising numbers (9.3 points, 6 rebounds). During the first quarter of a preseason loss to Miami in October 2010, though, a
25-year-old Jerebko fell on the floor and strained his right Achilles tendon. Pistons trainers immediately ruled him out for the season. He returned 14 months later and has had a productive career since in Detroit (2011-14), Boston (2014-17), Utah (2017-18) and Golden State (2018-19).
“Ever since I did my Achilles, I never had any problems with my leg,” said Jerebko, who normally completes calf raises to keep his right Achilles strong. “I could barely jump from my right leg. Now I can dunk on my right leg.”
Even at 32 years old, Wilkins also had no problem dunking following his right Achilles tendon injury. After his injury in the January 1992, Wilkins returned the following season and averaged 29.9 points on 46.8 percent shooting. Wilkins then played seven more years and made two more All-Star appearances.
“Everybody said I was done. I was like, ‘Really? I’m back,’” Wilkins said. “I was determined to prove all of the doubters wrong. I did. I came back and had my best all-around season.”
After having all those conversations with a handful of other NBA players that injured either their left or right Achilles tendon, what did Cousins learn?
“I took in the information that helped,” Cousins said. “The stuff that I didn’t really relate to, I took it with a grain of salt.”
Cousins is 28 and nobody is expecting him to replicate
the numbers (21.5 points, 11 rebounds) (11.0) during his eight combined seasons in Sacramento (2010-2017) and New Orleans (2017-18).
After all, Cousins will have to blend his talent with four other All-Stars with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. But what about Cousins’ presence alone?
“If he’s healthy, that definitely elevates Golden State. There’s no question about that,” Wilkins said. “He’s the best big man in the league before he got hurt.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr plans to start Cousins
because of his All-Star credentials, have a true center at the five position and open up shots for his All-Star teammates with screens and passes. Kerr also plans to stagger Cousins with the second unit so he can both command a playmaking role that David West once fulfilled and score with a blend of postups and outside shots.
“Obviously it sucks for me that he’s in the Western Conference and on the Warriors,: said Gay, now in his second season with the Spurs. “But I think he’ll be fine. I know what he can do. We all know what he can do. But where he ends
up on that team, I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows. I don’t think the team knows.”
We’re about to find out. Cousins will write the first chapter of his comeback story Friday night. He already has learned plenty about how others wrote theirs.
“It’s really tested me as a person, a man and an athlete,” Cousins said. “I had a lot of dark days and a lot of good days. I questioned myself a lot. But I found a way to overcome all of those bad feelings. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and extremely excited to be out on there on the floor.”