Nene Not Ready to Play for Perhaps Another Three Weeks


The Washington Wizards are in the midst of yet another horrific season, besieged by injuries and still winless. Center Nene — currently out with an injured left foot — says he’s not ready to help his team stem the tide. Per the WaPo: “With the Wizards (0-5) one of just two remaining winless teams in the NBA and John Wall also injured, Nene admitted he feels pressure to return and help on the court, not just serve as some cheerleader or sage veteran passing along wisdom. But the desire to fix a problem that has plagued him for nearly 11 months outweighs the temptation to rush back. ‘I want that thing to heal 100 percent, because I don’t want to shrink my career,’ Nene said. ‘I need to take care of it right now. I want to finish the pain, because it is still painful. I try sometimes, like, ‘Hurry up,’ when I have physical therapy. That could be a mistake. I need to be true with myself and know this is a serious situation.’ Nene, 30, visited Mark S. Myerson, the medical director at the Institute for Foot and Ankle Reconstruction at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, last week and said he was told that he was ‘probably three weeks away.’ When asked to elaborate on whether that meant he would play or begin practicing in three weeks, Nene hedged off a specific timeline, simply explaining how he continues to deal with soreness as a result of plantar fasciitis near the heel of his left foot. For the first time, Nene spoke at length about how the problem began and the frustration he feels about the injury and with outsiders who don’t understand its severity. ‘They have no clue,’ Nene said, adding that he actually tore a ligament in the bottom of his foot and that another is irritated and causing more problems. ‘They think it’s simple pain.’ Nene said he started feeling discomfort in his left foot last December in Denver, ‘because I worked real hard during the lockout.’ The culprit may have been ‘bad shoes,’ he said, but he also felt obligated to keep playing through it after the Nuggets gave him a five-year, $65 million contract in free agency.”