How Warriors’ Marques Bolden came back from basketball’s most dreaded injury

LAS VEGAS A grueling frustrating seemingly-endless year of rehab taught Marques Bolden a lesson he will never forget Every rebound secured shot blocked and step taken on his surgically repaired right Achilles tendon is to be cherished by the Warriors center It taught me not to take each day for granted Bolden stated the Bay Area News Group after completing a strenuous practice at the Las Vegas Basketball Center on Thursday afternoon And now almost exactly a year after being felled by the same injury that has devastated stars Tyrese Haliburton Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum in latest weeks Bolden is ready to resume his basketball journey on the same Thomas Mack Center court it was put on pause When you get hurt with an injury like that it s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel Bolden stated You re just focused on the present time So for me to be back out here and playing and practicing again I m just happy to be running up and down Another lesson was learned by Bolden on that day he was injured in Las Vegas He had woken up with a sore calf but shrugged it off After all athletes are seldom without several sort of ache or pain when playing at a high level In hindsight he would have done things differently Like I thought that if you get a good warm-up in you ll be OK Bolden remembered But I guess it was something more than that Bolden was unable to walk on his injured tendon for three months and staying positive was often a struggle He credited his immediate family and friends for keeping him upbeat He also leaned upon his fellow Duke alumni for backing The -year-old regularly talks with former NBA lottery pick and former college national champion Jahlil Okafor who also tore his Achilles in and was able to provide Bolden with advice during his rehab Okafor was not the only former Blue Devil to uplift Bolden Do what you inevitably do is what legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski reported his former player You follow medical professional s orders and you do the rehab and just be person and stay strong That was given not as orders from a coach to a competitor but from one basketball peer to the other I m proud to be his friend not just his former coach Krzyzewski described the Bay Area News Group on Friday morning Golden State Warriors' Marques Bolden gains a rebound against the Los Angeles Lakers' Darius Bazley in the second quarter of an NBA Summer League challenge at Chase Center in San Francisco Calif on Saturday July Ray Chavez Bay Area News Group A little under a year after his injury Bolden had a similar message for onetime Duke teammate Tatum after the Celtics superstar suffered an Achilles injury in a playoff match against the Knicks I let him know that there s definitely better days ahead Bolden mentioned I know that when you first get hurt when somebody says that they feel like they re the only person who feels that way It s tough to see that So I just try to give him selected encouragement Krzyzewski was not surprised that his former pupil who arrived at the college powerhouse as a top-ranked recruit out of DeSoto Texas in and left in as a dependable presence in the middle remained close with his former Duke teammates We have a brotherhood and you re talking about three exceptional human beings in Marques Jahlil and Jayson Krzyzewski explained Our guys look after one another like brothers Unlike multiple high-profile members of the brotherhood Bolden s career has not been one of a star the one exception being his stints with the Indonesian national company as a naturalized citizen He has played in NBA games spending largest part of his career in the G-League as a traditional workmanlike center who has used his -foot- frame and athleticism to carve out a niche at the end of NBA benches as a lob threat and rim protector Related Articles NBA Summer League takeaways Warriors routed by Hansen Yang s Blazers in Las Vegas NBA Summer League Warriors squad gets first look at Hansen Yang in Las Vegas opener Curry just off Pavelski s lead to open title defense in Tahoe celebrity golf tournament Cooper Flagg s duel with Bronny James in Mavs debut rocks Las Vegas Summer League Warriors Summer League preview Draft picks NorCal native among those looking to impress He s still the competitor that we saw last year that was really positive for us Warriors Summer League coach Lainn Wilson described this news organization As someone whose NBA career was already not guaranteed losing a step could shut the door forever on playing in the world s top league Bolden believes he is back to about of where he was pre-injury and is getting closer to fully healthy each day In two games at the latest California classic Bolden presented that his rebounding prowess did not diminish during his year-long absence from the court grabbing the second-most boards on the company despite missing one encounter I want to show that I m still an athlete Bolden announced An Achilles injury could be seen as a red flag to specific and so I just want to erase the narrative of me not being able to move the same or me not being able to pick up where I left off