Jaden Ivey: Leaning On FAITH | The Comeback Story You Need to See | Original Documentary

Jaden Ivey: Leaning On FAITH | The Comeback Story You Need to See | Original Documentary

just talking to, you know, the medical staff, you know, any chance that I can get out there and play, you know, I’m I’m I’m grateful to be out there and, you know, to be able to to use my gifts and um you know, because you know, you never know when it can be over, whether I’m sore, you know, I’ve had, you know, soreness, you know, in in a lot of areas this season, but you know, any chance that I can get out there and play. Um, you know, I’m I’m just grateful to be out there. So, and on the move is Jaden Ivy. Ivy off a hesitation to the basket. Oh, scores and got fouled on the play way out near the timeline. 4 seconds, 3 seconds, two. Jade Ivy from the baseline buries it at the horn. Pistons win [Music] to Ivy for the pump. He got Yes, he did. Yes, he did it. [Music] Hey, right over here. [Music] Welcome to another exciting night of NBA basketball. I’m George Blaha. Happy to be live at Little Caesar’s Arena with my partner, Special K. Gregory Keler, we didn’t know how they would respond after the disappointing home loss to Utah which preceded the road trip. But man, they put that aside and really really played well together. They were resilient. They came overcame adversity. Very impressive in going three and one on that tough road trip. Duran will jump it up with Bataz and the tap is slapped around. Comes to Kate. Pistons have it going first. Jaden in the lane. stop just over three minutes in. Right there you see the Pistons. They’re almost 21 points a game in transition over the last Jy from the corner for three and it’s through. Here’s Jay Nivey for three and that one was right on line. I with the basketball against Cole Anthony. Rocks the dribble. Rocks it again. Stops comes for three and it’s through back the other way. Rob to Tobias for a stop. Almost 21 points a game in transition over the last 16. Pass up the floor. Nearly picked off, but Jaden Ivy sets up a slam. Last scoop was on a steal and stuff for Sar Thompson. Jaden Ivy to the basket. Leading scoop off the square for a score. What a shot. 22 for Jaden. Big time basket there. off the rim. Grabbing his left ankle in pain. Oh man, in a he is not getting up either. He is in anguish on that floor. Jay Nivey Pistons are going to go check him out. Coach is heading to the floor. [Applause] [Music] The whole team is going out there. The entire team is going out. This poor kid is in terrible pain. I’ve been through a lot of injuries and so I understood the road that was going to lay before him. Um, so understanding that, you know, I was just I was my heart was broken to be honest. Uh it was really hard to watch. It was really hard to go through [Music] [Music] immediately you’re just hoping for the best, right? Um you hope it’s not serious. You hope that he can shake it off. But I immediately knew he wasn’t going to shake it off. And you know, I knew that it was going to be a, you know, an injury that he was going to have to you know, come back from. You don’t know what the injury is immediately, but you know that something serious is going on when he goes down and he’s in a significant amount of pain. Our job is to make sure we stabilize him as quickly as we can on the court and assess the situation in terms of what type of injury he has. I mean, it’s tough. It’s tough on um you know, all of us. Um you know, no better teammate person uh than Ji. you know, no one who cares more about this thing uh than him. Um, and you know, it’s it’s tough to see. I mean, I just got to pray for the young man. And it was it was heartbreaking to see that happen. I mean, it’s we’re out you’re out there competing as best as you can. And you never want to see that happen to anyone. I just my my thoughts and my prayers, our thoughts and our prayers are with him. Definitely. I mean, there’s emotions with it. We hate to see our brother go down like that. To see him hurting like that. It’s tough on us. When I saw the the the pain in his face and all right, you know, it definitely hurt my heart for my for my son. Uh you hate to see your son in pain. Um, I pray and just for a speedy recovery, whatever whatever the case may be, you have about 5 minutes to feel those emotions, but you have to immediately switch to action plan. Reality is to get him off the court safely, get X-rays in the arena, and then we have to make some quick decisions on the next level of care. And his injury was significant enough that he needed care right away. It was planning for surgery. Planning now knowing that okay, part of his season um has changed now. Now we have to focus on finding the right surgeon for him. And within minutes of his injury, Dr. Bill Matzero sent me a text with uh pictures of what his X-rays look like. Uh we had seen that he had fractured his ankle and we coordinated his care to be transferred to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. There’s a lot of communication between security um between myself as the head team physician and surgeon, my hospital system, Henry Ford Health. My heart sank. You know, I was very grateful that I was actually in Detroit in the building cuz as a mother, I think it would have been worse if I was away having to watch that on television. I was able to reach out to our team that was in the hospital that night in order to expedite his care and then make plans for uh surgery to be done in an expedited fashion the day after his injury. By day two, we’re already planning ahead of what next week is going to look like, what’s the next month going to look like. My trainers have been amazing. Uh, the doctors have been amazing. Um, everybody’s been giving their all to like try and get me back to, you know, the best shape, the shape that I was in before the injury. How confident are you that Ji will be able to recover from this? 100%. I have no hesitation that he’s going to fully recover from this. I need you to pray for me. Pray for me. All I need. What I need from you is pray for me. There’s a tremendous amount of collaboration and that includes everyone. Um from Greg Smith uh to Sebastian Porier to to Parson um Alex and Billy and myself. All of us have to be together and plan this out and get him the care he needs. But it’s not just like the orthopedic care like the part that I have to focus on in terms of the health of his ankle, the health of postsurgical um condition of his leg. Um but it’s also the mental aspect have to you know go through it. But it’s building up my patience, my perseverance, my my, you know, toughness level, not giving up. You know, there’s times where I just think in my mind like, how how am I going to get back from this? Or I put in so much time and then How how long you got? Uh about 3 weeks out right now. So I got a still a long ways to go, but it’s getting there, bro. One day at a time, even though it’s just like how am I going to come back? That thought comes into mind. There’s a lot of thoughts and like mentally obviously there’ll be thoughts when I do get back on the court but I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. So I think you know whatever’s ahead it will be just fine. You know this is not a short injury. you know uh it’s going to be a journey for him in the scary moments in the between where he is uh unsure how this journey is going to go he looks upon us and he trusts us so when I say you’re going to come out of this good you’re going to come out the stronger you’re going to come out with even better than you were beforehand um it takes a level of trust for him to go with through that process with us let the games again. [Music] May the best one. [Music] I mean, to be honest, it’s the highest level of care you could possibly get. He has every modality right that he needs, you know, from, you know, compression icing with a game ready, which is basic to a normate to an alter G here down the road to run on a weightless treadmill to our water-based treadmill that we have. Come back season walking. Yeah. I know it’s going to end one day. So, I’m trying to enjoy every moment. And obviously, I got to go through this trial. So, but I I will overcome it. And I will be better from it. I mean, my my office is literally 100 yards away from here. uh we’re connected as a building and there’s no better advantage than having that than being able to to have the care right next to you. And I think that he’s going to get the best levels that he possibly could because of everything that’s been set up at this location. Let the games begin. Spot Jay Ivy on the bench with the team. What does it do for the team to have him in his presence? I mean, it’s huge for us. Like, you know, the guys truly care about Ji and so when he’s there, you know, there is that extra motivation, uh, you know, just to be better, um, and go out and play the way that he know we know he would like us to play. Oh, damn. Man, it’s it’s a blessing. Obviously back here, first game back. Um, it’s pretty cool. So, I’m I’m itching to get back, man. I want to get back out there with fellas. So, I’m trying to do everything I can to give back. Go Pistons, man. Oh, I’m about to scoot down all the way. What’s up, Art? So when you get hurt, the goal for us as health care professionals, all of us, our entire healthcare team, is to kind of shift that focus away from basketball and into recovery. And he’s done a phenomenal job of it. But yes, do we have to slow him down sometimes? Yeah, we do. mid-March you you’ll probably start jogging a little bit on on the court which which that’s what makes it diff difficult because your jogging your nativity uh like next week would be either in the pool or in the alter so you I notice sometimes when I get on the court I want to like move. It’s definitely tough to like not move as much. You know, in the past it’s immobilization and you know, leave them in a cast and don’t get them out of it and don’t get them moving right away and really be protective of the bone. We’ve advanced so much more now when it comes to like bone stimulators to encourage bone growth, get them out of immobilization right away, get them moving, get him his strength immediately. I mean, we’re starting therapy within a few days. So, you just got to be able to trust it, trust what the Lord is doing. I did just start getting back on the court um through doing stationary shooting and stuff. So, like see the ball go through the net like that’s like everything right now for me. It’s like I’m like 40% there. more. Feel like every single day is something new I’m trying to trying to do. So, uh, man, this is great. It’s not like we’ve been doing pool walking for a while. Oh, yeah. And now I’m doing this the first time getting on a treadmill. I’m just trying to every single day get better. Obviously, it takes, you know, it takes birth. It takes things like this to really get my my foot back moving. Um, so, um, just take it one day at a time. for in terms of like getting your gate going. Uh we’re starting off in the walk. Uh we’ll we’ll finish all the walking stuff in here. Go back and walk when we’re jogging and then come back in here to jog again. So we won’t be flipping around. That’s great. You know, he’s always the type of person that lives in the gym, wants to get better every day. And so for this, it’s just unfortunately it’s just a bump in the road. My mom’s been through like two ACL injuries. I think dad’s been through a career ending uh Achilles injury. Jade’s never been hurt, so this is his first major injury. It’s hard being idle. He’s never He’s always been the type of person that is physically on the court, is physically in the gym. I was hoping that he would get through his career without a serious injury, but I think, you know, it’s part of the game. Obviously, you know, I think Jaden’s going to come back from this and be better from it. You want to take a day off for your birthday? Nah, I got to get back, right? I got to get back where I got goals today. It’s part of it. Just a day for me. It’s not really just another day that the Lord blessed me with. So part of my routine. It’s okay. It’s mostly God. It’s really all over the heel right there. Scar looks great. This is going to start lighting up this skin. Yeah. And every day I just take it, you know, day by day. Obviously there’s there’s days I don’t feel like, you know, coming in here doing treatment, doing, you know, just everything, but I know it’s it’s necessary and I know it’s going to help me get back to where I need to be. You said obviously the first day out of the booth. How’s this feel for you and picture? Uh it’s cool. It’s cool. Uh this is like my my old stomping grounds. Uh you know where I you know spent three years here. So um obviously I have you know brothers uh Demetrius Jackson and Devin Kenny who I grew up with and we played basketball together you know throughout my whole through throughout my whole uh you know kind of journey in basketball. So, it’s cool to uh you know be here right now. Out of all of us, who you think will win? We’re going to have to see. We’ll have to make that happen. But it’s going it’s going to be me, Jaden. [Music] A lot of emotions. Just so proud just watching him kind of grow up here in the South Bin community. And it just shows me the impact that he’s made here in such a positive way. And I’m so grateful for the Marian family. Like, this is a brotherhood for Jaden. And for him to be honored in this way is just monumental. So, I’m really I’m really proud of him. For me, it feels like 15 years like just being in this atmosphere area, but uh it’s pretty cool. It’s pretty special to be able to be back obviously. Uh and an amazing honor. This is freshman. I think sophomores might be here. This is all freshman. And now the Raptors number 13. [Music] [Applause] This is home. I mean, my life consisted of hours in the gym cuz that’s that’s what I grew up doing. And, you know, small town, I I would literally just go and hoop. Um, and that’s that’s what my life consisted of as a high school athlete. But, um, you know, I’m I’m just thinking of all the moments I had here. It’s pretty special. a community that has embraced our family, has embraced Jaden. Everybody has watched him grow up here and the inspiration that he’s been in this Southman community, the support is just unreal. So, I think just a a tremendous gratitude is what’s going to fill his heart. be able to be back here and come together um and get all our jerseys retired you know somewhere we spent you know I know for them four years but for me three years and you know it’s pretty cool what we’re trying to do is erase a month and a half of work walking the booth you know uh because you’ve created some patterns and even when you’re walking out outside of the boot, you’re protecting it. So you’re doing this, right? So now it’s like even as your ankle cuz your ankle can move now. Like your motion that you have is enough to walk normally. The power that you have is enough to walk normally. It’s just your brain has trained it to like kind of lift it up and play with it. So being able to do those big steps, walk backwards, those patterns, that helps. Have to have hard conversations sometimes. And kind of reiterate to him the idea behind healing and returning. And we don’t want to go too aggressively where it compromises his recovery. But we also don’t want to just be slow to be slow, right? We want to go at the pace that he can tolerate. uh that allows him the best level of healing to get his career back. You know, we just want to do it the right way and and I think that he is an easy athlete to work with and and I say that in the best way possible. He is he is a pleasure to work with. He’s motivated. He asks questions. He’s informed. Uh he wants to get back to play for the Detroit Pistons. Having to sit back and um see the game from again from a different perspective is uh I knew that that was pretty challenging for him. But watching him grow, watching every week him get stronger and stronger mentally. Um, and it’s just it’s been a it’s been a blessing to see how this injury is going to make him even a better person and a better athlete and a better player for Detroit. He’s built for it. He’s going to he’s going to shake back knowing him. um he’s going to work his tail off and he’s going to be better than ever when he gets back. But obviously I’m enjoying this time that I had with my family cuz I haven’t, you know, been able to spend time during the season. I’m on full blind mode. It feels good to be out here. Honestly, uh throughout my progress, you know, it’s a lot of work that I have to do every single day to, you know, get back to where I want to be. So, um, this is like the step in the right direction right now. Um, so I’m just trying to, you know, it’s little steps right now and obviously as a team we’re, uh, we put ourselves in a good position. um and and something that we’ve been talking about for a couple years and where we we we saw ourselves being and um you know it’s it’s motivated me um to you know just keep pushing all day kind of kind of blanked out on like, you know, what happened. Obviously, it happened, you know, in that spot, but um I’m not really too talk about it right now. Um but I, you know, I take it as it’s a new opportunity. Um you know, soon I’ll be in that spot again and um you know, doing special things. [Music] I’ve been on this journey trying to find my way. Don’t know where I’m headed, but I’ll be home one day. But the very end, come on. Troy, let’s get back to work. [Music] J which I think is going to be massive. You know what I mean? Like that’s another big one of your sleeper guys. One thing that does get lost in all this to be honest with you is is Ji’s return. So I think he’s going to fill a lot of those point guard roles and playmaking roles. Just enjoy this day. I appreciate you guys. Um looking forward to seeing you guys and hope you guys enjoy the day. He like grown man out there. Troy going to be all right. He came down so fast. I’m like, “Yeah, I’m cooked.” I think about that. You’re bringing back Jaden Ivy, who was really doing a good job last year. They get to mid year, um, he’s going to be phenomenal. When you have a guy who worked as hard as he worked to come back from an injury, you know, a guy who cares about his teammates and wants to play with his teammates, you know, it is emotional and I think that’s the best part about it. We look forward to what he’ll be able to do going forward. Don’t know where I’m headed, but I’ll be home one day. But if you see me, please don’t bother me. And if my head’s hanging down, don’t you cry. Don’t you cry for me. Yeah. Good morning. Morning, man. It’s been a journey, bro. A journey. Um definitely blessed to um be healed. The the journey has been definitely a grind to get back, to get healed, be able to be back healthy and to do, you know, what I’ve, you know, been working for my whole life. I’m I’m healed now and looking forward to this next season. He’s been in the gym. He’s been diligent on his rehab protocol. We’re looking forward to having him back and he’s going to be a huge part of this team. Great first, you know, training him back and still trying to kind of get the feel of things a little bit cuz I’ve been gone, but obviously before um even the offseason, been able to be with the team and and be back here and compete and work out and get better. Um, so it’s been great. Uh, he’s an unbelievable teammate. He’s an unbelievable human being. Uh, and he’s someone I enjoy working with every day. Give me [Applause] the wor [Applause] share with you tonight. Jaden Ivy will miss the start of the season. He’s a resilient person and all these setbacks just they don’t deter him from what his ultimate goal is and that’s to be a great basketball and a player and a great teammate. So um you know as difficult it is for him and all of us to lose him uh for these first four weeks. Um you know I know that he’s going to come back better for it. Almost there. Almost there. Got it. Couple more days. just rehab and and just get my body back in shape and I’ll be back soon. I don’t even know. I don’t even know my emotions that whole day. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of excitement, a lot of uh joy just being able to get back on the court again. But a little emotional, I think, uh just with the process and how long it’s it’s been since I’ve been on the court. And I think it’s going to be a A special moment. There he is. Season debut. Jaden Ivy, the Boiler Maker. Jaden Ivy. Been rehabbing. Been working hard to get back in the gym. Get back to this moment in time. Number 23 back out on the floor. Who do we worship? Who do we praise for? Give me the glory. Ivy, a little scoop, a little up and under for his first bucket of the 2025 season. We’ve missed it.

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