by Rodney Stuckey
Welcome, everyone, to the first installment of the SLAM Rookie Blogs. Our initial blog comes from Rodney Stuckey of the Detroit Pistons.
The most surprising thing about the NBA is all the traveling. You go here, you play, then you get on the plane and you go to the next place. And you don’t get in to the next place until about 2, 3 in the morning. Then you gotta get up, sometimes we have shootarounds — all that right there is really different from my college days.
Unfortunately, I got hurt in the preseason against Washington and haven’t played since. I don’t know quite what I did, but I fractured three bones in my left hand. I had surgery the next day, and they told me it would be like 6 or 8 weeks to heal. It’s been about 4 and half weeks, so I have a couple more weeks and we’ll see what happens. I’m gonna get another x-ray when I go back home after this West Coast road trip.
I thought I played pretty well in the preseason before I got hurt. The games were definitely good as far as getting me comfortable for the regular season games.
There’s actually not a real big adjustment in the NBA game. Getting used to having a 24 second shot clock is kind of different. In college, we had a 35 second one, but just having a 24 second shot clock is different because the game is so much faster. You just gotta make sure you’re in good shape.
As far as my game on the court, I think I can be effective getting to the basket and scoring or creating for my teammates — that’s one thing I do really well. But having the help that I have on this team, having Rip, Chauncey, Wallace, Lindsay Hunter and all those guys around while I’m going through this whole process has been a blessing.
I think that one of the reasons why the Detroit Pistons as an organization is where they’re at right now is the atmosphere in the locker room is very good. We always have a positive mind throughout the locker room, and I think if you’re having a negative attitude in the locker rooms and all that stuff, that’s not really a good thing to vibe off. So all the enthusiasm and stuff coming from the players is all good. We’re all a family. We all hang out with each other, and we all treat each other with respect. If someone messes up, we get on each other, so it’s all about being a brotherhood.
It’s unfortunate that I got hurt, but sometimes that’s a part of basketball. I’m just gonna wait my time until I get healthy, and try to whatever it takes to help my team. Everything else that is going on right now, I expected this, so hopefully things keep going the way they are for our team. We’re winning right now, and hopefully we can continue doing that.
