MAKING GOOD ON COMEBACK
Gruesome knee injury threatened Livingston’s career seven years ago
The Brooklyn Nets’ Shaun Livingston took a hesitation dribble, drove by Phoenix Suns guard Gerald Green and threw down a swooping one-handed dunk on Suns big man Miles Plumlee.
It was an otherwise ordinary NBA play — made extraordinary by the fact that Livingston’s career was in jeopardy in 2007 after he suffered one of the worst and most gruesome on-court knee injuries.
Playing for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2006-07, Livingston went up for a layup and landed horribly wrong — the lower half of his left leg was parallel to the court while his upper left leg was perpendicular.
He screamed in pain. Bench players winced. Players on the court went to look and quickly turned away.
He was 21 at the time and suffered serious left knee damage, tearing the anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments and dislocating his kneecap. He also had a torn lateral meniscus, and the thigh and shin bones were out of place. It is as serious as a knee injury gets. Though he heard he might not play again, no doctor ever told him that, Livingston said.
“My doctor, James Andrews, said it was a mountain to climb and told me it would be one of the most difficult injuries to overcome,” Livingston said. “But there was never a closed door on my career.”
Livingston set career highs in minutes played and points scored in a season this week. Normally, those milestones go unrecognized. Not this one.
“It was sad to see what happened with him when he got injured,” Nets guard Deron Williams said. “But he’s definitely a mentally tough person and player, and to be able to come back from that and play the way he is right now, it speaks about what kind of character he has.”
Said Nets coach Jason Kidd: “Incredible. It’s a great story. ... I couldn’t ask for a better player to coach and be around.”
In a series of interviews with Livingston over the past year, he revealed a resolute and positive mind-set. He was determined not to let a defining moment define him.
“Everybody had expectations of where I should be or said, ‘He’s not going to be the same player,’ ” Livingston told USA TODAY Sports this week. “It’s easy to fall into a trap as a player. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s just OK that I made it back and the work stops here.’ It’s not OK just to make it back.”
That swooping one-handed dunk is not an anomaly. Among guards, he is fourth in the league in dunks.
But more important, he is a key player in the Nets’ resurgence, starting alongside Williams in the backcourt. Livingston averages eight points, three rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.2 steals and recorded his first doubledouble in points and rebounds this season.
“It (his knee) has felt as good as it has since my injury,” he said. “That’s a testament to God and all the work that I put in and everyone that I worked with. Physically, I don’t even think about it.”
At one point last season, Livingston said he didn’t know how much athleticism he had left and wanted to work on facets of his game he could control. It happens to all players as they age: They have to rely more on smarts and less on that fading natural ability. It happened to Livingston faster than most.
It also took him longer than most to adapt, and not surprising since then-Clippers team doctor Tony Daley called Livingston’s injury one of the worst he had ever seen.
After winding his way through several NBA cities — Miami, Oklahoma City, Washington, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Washington again and Cleveland — and rebuilding his leg and knee strength and finally trusting in his knee, Livingston has found a spot with the Nets.
He has worked with a variety of trainers, including Tim Grover, but he spent the last two summers with Miami-based trainer Manning Sumner.
“He ran me through hell,” Livingston said. “Some of the work that we did, he was like, ‘You’re not hurt. You’re going to do everything that we do, and you’re going to do it better than everybody.’ I’m going to give it my all and find my last bit of athleticism. ... I really dedicated myself in the summer, pushing myself past the brink of mediocrity.”
Sumner said Livingston still had reservations about his knee in the summer of 2012. “He was holding back and not trusting himself or the process,” Sumner said. “It was like starting over. We had to build a foundation from the ground up.”
By last summer, Livingston “believed in himself,” Sumner said. “He worked his ( butt) off. He didn’t always like it, but he did it. I’m not going to call anybody out, but he would be running circles around guys. He pushed the envelope, and I knew there was a big difference.”
Livingston, who had dislocated his right patella his rookie season, said he has never watched video of the injury, preferring to focus on what’s next. He doesn’t often ask “what could’ve been?” or “what should’ve been?”
“I try not to, because it takes away from whatever I have left in the tank,” he said. “It’s really about focusing on every bit of potential, every bit of ounce of talent and trying to maximize that.
“It’s also looking at the big picture and understanding this is a game I love to play and I’m still able to play it and able to earn a living and play at the highest level. You try to put it in perspective.”