Haliburton: Checking in on each other is important. Everybody is in different phases. Some guys are ahead. I’m obviously the farthest behind. So we’re checking in on each other. It’s almost like Facebook sometimes where moms will share pictures of their kids doing something for the first time, and people will get excited for them. I’m sending a video of what I’m doing and guys will send me videos of what they’re doing.
Dejounte Murray and Jayson Tatum are the two guys that I talk to mainly. But it’s important because you’re chasing something. I text Jayson little questions like, yo, how long do I have to sleep with this boot on, bro? When did you get this off? How are you feeling running for the first time? Did it feel weird? Am I weird for feeling a certain type of way when I’m doing something?
It’s not even us as NBA players. People need to be able to talk to each other. Kevin Durant says he is the “Achilles guy” because he is one of the first ones in our league to come back from it right back to who he was. Now, we’re going to be the Achilles guys where guys are hitting us up about it. I think it’s important because everybody is going through it in a different way. Everybody grieves differently.
For Jayson, he talked about the mental hurdle of knowing if he was ever going to get back to who he was. For me, my grief wasn’t so much about that, because I wasn’t concerned about that. I grieved Game 7. I grieve not winning a championship. It’s a little different. So everybody’s grief is a little different. It’s important to talk about. It takes a village to get through anything.
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Dealing with injuries sucks. I’ve had 6 surgeries for knee/hip issues and for me it didn’t necessarily get easier physically, you just get better conditioned to attacking the recovery mentally. Learning as much as you can through the recovery process is key to come back in the right mindset, last thing you want is a player questioning that limb and if it’ll hold up.
Glad to hear these guys have the support they need to get back to the players we love watching. Excited to see how Murray fits with this faster paced team