Zach LaVine was in high spirits at practice today, so much so that his teammates took notice.
“Me and Brandon [Rush] were talking before practice, it seems like he didn’t have surgery,” said Ricky Rubio. “He’s walking around here, and [I] spent like six weeks with crutches. He’s shooting already, he’s a freak athlete, and you can tell the way he’s recovering, if the season was one or two months more, he probably would play.”
LaVine, speaking in front of a display advertising the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine center, which is in the same building as the team’s practice facility, said that he’s feeling well and hasn’t had many setbacks.
“I feel good right now,” he said. “At the beginning obviously you’re mad. You’re upset. But I feel good now, in a peaceful state of mind [and] getting better every day.”
The injury itself didn’t look terrible at the time it occurred. LaVine came up in pain after driving to the basket in a game against the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 3. He continued to play in the game, but was diagnosed with a torn ACL and ruled out for the rest of the season the next day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PG7vzvhi-c
“I just landed,” he says now. “You guys have seen me land like that hundreds of times. When I went back and looked at my reaction, I felt like I sprained my knee or jammed my knee a little bit. Just got up and walked away. So no, I felt fine.”
He says that his father, Paul, has been helpful throughout the recovery process. The man who instilled his gym rat mentality also has helped him through the rehabilitation process.
“I talked to my dad about everything,” he said. “He said to take the same approach you have with basketball in general. You go each offseason extremely hard. You work out. You’re focused. I have to do that with my knee and my leg until I get to 100 percent and go from there.”
He’s also kept in touch with Jabari Parker, the Milwaukee Bucks star who tore his ACL earlier this year as well.
“I know he’s gone through it before and he’s going to come back the same player he was before or even better,” said LaVine, who says he texts Parker regularly. “You just have to keep everything positive. I know he’s a hard worker as well. Just seeing how people feel about it.”
Wolves head coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau appears to be happy with LaVine’s progress.
“He’s doing fine. Doing what he’s supposed to be doing,” said Thibodeau. “The rehab’s gone well. He’s here every day, with the team, going through practice. Doing things that he can do. So, watching film, working on his left hand, ball-handling, form shooting. All of the above. Being a good teammate. And obviously he can put more time into strength and conditioning and things like that.
“He’s making good use of his time, and that’s what he should be doing.”
As for how he’s trying to integrate him into the team, Thibodeau smirked.
“Yell at him daily,” he said, in jest. “No, he’s done a good job with that. And that’s the thing. Whatever your circumstances are, you make the best of those. This is an opportunity for him to maybe look at the game from a different lens. So it’s a good opportunity to study — not only our team, but the league.
“The things that he’s done, the things we want him to work on. And as time goes along, he’s going to be doing more and more. So it’s good. So the mental part is good, it’s a good opportunity for growth. And then just understanding that go into coming back.”
Rubio chuckled when he was told about Thibodeau’s scoldings.
“He gets yelled at a lot, but he does a lot of good things,” he said. “It’s not what he does, it’s the way he does it. He hustles, he knows how to play. Of course he makes mistakes like everybody else, but he makes mistakes because he’s trying to do it. He’s just that kind of attitude that we’re missing, it would be the kind of hustle plays and playing hard.”
LaVine couldn’t hold back his smile when asked about Thibodeau’s yelling either.
“The first time I got back, he almost poked me a little bit and said, ‘I ain’t yelled at you in (a month). Let me get some frustration out,’” he said. “It’s still funny. Joking around. I’m with the team every day, day-in and day-out, except for when they go on the road. I’m watching practice, watching film, went to the game the other day. It’s really cool.”
While he is in good spirits and able to walk without crutches, LaVine hesitated to put a definitive timetable on his return from an injury that usually has a seven-to-nine month recovery period.
“I have no idea right now,” he said. “I’m taking it day by day. I feel great. My mind is in the right place. We will see how that goes. When that day comes, when I’m 100 percent, when I’m comfortable, ya’ll will see Zach back on the court doing what he does.”
Notes
- Asked what he’ll do this summer, LaVine said: “I haven’t figure that out yet. I know I’m going to spend a lot more time here. I haven’t really gotten to spend a summer here in Minnesota. I heard it’s beautiful so I’m actually looking forward to that.”
- Thibodeau was very upset after the loss to San Antonio last night, but didn’t seem too hung up on it today: “The third quarter didn’t go the way we would have liked. We had ten fouls. And they had 16 free throws. We had turnovers. All the things we had talked about going into the game, that we know would happen… We knew the pressure would be great. That’s a team that is fighting for the best record in the league. It’s a great team. And I like having the opportunity to go against them, because it tells us exactly where we are.”
- Thibodeau said San Antonio made mistakes late in the game too, but they were better able at recovering from them: “I showed them, you know San Antonio, they made mistakes along the way, too. But the one thing they did was they had incredible pursuit after their mistakes to overcome them. And that’s something we can learn from. So the way they pursued the ball is special. That’s why they win the way they do. They’re a big time second, third, fourth effort mentality-type team. They have discipline.”
- Rubio expressed his dismay at letting leads slip away late in games as well: “Well, after a good stretch run, we had four games that it wasn’t that good. And we just have to get together. It was good teams too, I’m not gonna lie. When we beat good teams at home, we went to Boston, which was the second seed in the East, and Bjelly went down at the halftime. And then Miami that’s hot, and then San Antonio last night. I mean, pretty good teams, but it’s true that we haven’t played good, and we have to just get better.”
LaVine spoke for six minutes on his return from injury and his thoughts about missing out on the team’s stretch run. “We’re playing great right now. We slid on a couple games. I feel like we still have a very good chance,” he said. “That’s the main thing. You know, Minnesota sports the last couple years we haven’t really had anything to play for in April and now I feel like we do. It’s tough.”
Jones offered his thoughts on LaVine, as well as the Minnesota State High School Tournament, which was being played a couple feet away in the Target Center. “It’s a time that I will never forget,” he said. “I only got the chance to play in one State Tournament, unfortunately, so that makes it a little bit more special, just because it was just that one time.”
And, finally, Rubio has been through this before and said he’s helped LaVine through the process. “There is a lot of up and downs, you gotta stick with the plan,” he said. “There are some days that you’re gonna see big progress, and there are some days that you’re gonna see that it’s not going anywhere. You have to stick with the plan and keep working hard.”
