For my first blog, I’d like to touch on the grueling off-season of rehab I did to get ready for the season.
As you all know (or have seen millions of times on TV), I had a horrific season-ending fall against the Phoenix Suns toward the end of last year. The season was still deemed a success as the Bucks made the playoffs for the first time in a number of years, but I was absolutely shattered not to be out there on the floor.
As soon as the season ended after our game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, I headed home to Australia. Traveling with a cast and swelling wasn’t easy. I had to lug around a machine called the game ready, which you fill up with ice and water, and it compresses and ices areas or injuries you have. I brought this on the plane and iced every couple of hours to keep down swelling. I couldn’t really get comfortable enough to sleep on the 14-hour flight from LA to Melbourne, so the game ready was my best friend for the trip.
Once I landed in Melbourne, I immediately scheduled physiotherapy for the coming week. I was lucky to find a physiotherapist through my Australian-based agent, who was nice enough to come to my training facility every morning. This saved me a bunch of driving time with one working arm, as he was based 50 minutes from my home. Now, people have asked why I didn’t stay in Milwaukee to do rehab or why I went straight home. My rehab mentally was almost as tough as it was physically. I needed to get home to family, friends and other things to get my mind off of what just happened.
My schedule was pretty consistent every day of the week. I had physiotherapy around 10 or 11 a.m. for about an hour and a half. This involved a lot of soft tissue work. Now, by soft tissue work, I don’t mean the relaxing rock massage you receive at your local salon. This massage was the one I needed, the type where every stroke on my arm made my face scrunch in pain, the type of massage where I could feel the fluid and built-up swelling actually moving around in my arm. Following the soft tissue, it only got worse. It was time for mobilizations and stretching. For those who don’t know, one of my biggest problems (which kind of still is) was getting my arm to fully lock out into extension. The only way to get that back is to have the physiotherapist physically push it and stretch it through a lot of pain, so it slowly regains its flexibility. After physiotherapy, I hit the weight room. I concentrated on lower body, mainly because of my gimpy arm, but started to slowly strengthen my wrist and fingers with light weights. For conditioning, I did a lot of stationary bike riding, ladder drills, skipping rope and line sprints. The only positive from this injury was that I could still run and keep myself in decent shape. Afterward, I would get some ice on my elbow and fingers, have the afternoon off and get ready for the next morning.
This was my routine, Monday through Friday, every day. I used the weekend to get my mind away from my injury and catch up with family and friends.
Around mid-July I took a trip to Croatia. I have a holiday house in a small coastal town called Novalja, and I wanted to see my goddaughter and other family members over there. Oh, and it was freezing in Australia. I thought a European summer (or a little bit of it) couldn’t hurt. I ended up finding a physiotherapist in Novalja, thankfully, as I was stressed it would be hard to do, being that it was holiday season there. I stepped up my rehab to two times a day. The mornings started with physiotherapy and were followed by weight and conditioning work. I would then get a bite to eat and relax. Mid to late afternoon I would have one more session with the physiotherapist. Following that I would jump in the ocean and try to get my arm moving with some swimming. I think the swimming and the warm weather helped my arm feel much better and definitely helped with getting some of the swelling out. I ended up being in Croatia for about a month, and I think this month was a vital part of my rehab, as I really felt my arm getting better.
I got back to Milwaukee at the start of September. I was basically in full training from the get-go and felt pretty good. I was excited to be back on the floor. The only setback I had was in training camp when I took a pretty heavy hit to my index finger where they put the screw. It got inflamed quickly, and I missed about 10 days of training camp/exhibition games.
So was it all worth it? Yes. There is no better feeling then being back out on the floor and playing basketball. Oh, and proving all the naysayers wrong, you know the ones who were saying I wouldn’t be back until mid-season, well yeah, that helps, too. Now it’s not all smooth sailing for me just because I’m back on the court. My elbow is still giving me a little trouble, and I’m still getting treatment on it every single day. Shooting with my right hand also is not the best feeling, but I’m trying to work it back to a point where I can confidently shoot with my right hand and have no pain. The journey is not anywhere near over.
Thanks for your support Milwaukee. The Bucks and I love you all!
