PHOENIX — As DeMar DeRozan has sat out the past 17 games, the Toronto Raptors all-star has repeatedly expressed his frustration. He has frequently cited his competitive instinct to play, which has made it nearly impossible for him to sit courtside in street clothes while his teammates compete. He cannot put himself so close to the action without yearning to be in it.
For DeRozan, that makes a lot of sense. He has been playing more than 30 minutes a game, the workload of a foundational piece, for years now. In his first five NBA seasons, he missed just 11 games, and only 10 due to injury. This stretch has been aggressively abnormal for him.
His absence briefly created an opening for Landry Fields, a huge step for a player who has essentially had his career derailed by a nerve injury in his wrist that has destroyed his jumpshot. Raptors coach Dwane Casey trusted Fields’ knowledge of his team’s defensive schemes, and appreciated how the move allowed Toronto’s stellar second unit to remain in tact. And then, on Dec. 19, Fields leaped at Detroit’s Kyle Singler, tumbled over his back and landed on the court, the back of his head banging off of the floor. As he got up, a pool of blood remained, escaped from a wound from the back of his head that would require eight stitches to be closed. The lingering effects: a concussion, which sidelined him for five games, before he returned back to the starting lineup in Friday’s loss in Golden State.
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The timing was the type that torments players, especially those that have battled long-term injuries and need to re-locate their use in the league. To add to it, Fields’ contract is due to expire, and this was a good chance to show what he could do. By all rights, Fields should have been more frustrated than DeRozan.
“It goes more into life with me, viewpoints about life and about basketball,” Fields said. “With injury and other extenuating circumstances, you kind of change the totem pole of your life. Basketball, I love it, I’ll always love it, but I can’t make it no. 1. In this instance, it could be gone, and you’ll never know. All of a sudden you can just not be playing because of a concussion. It doesn’t take away your love or your work [you put into] the game. It just kind of puts things in perspective.”
It is the type of comment that can get players branded as apathetic by the louder parts of the sports world. Earlier this season, Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose was vilified for saying that when he sits out a game, following surgeries on both knees, it was because he is thinking of his future beyond basketball. The salary, the thought goes, should require a player to not do that.
However, in both Fields’ and Rose’s cases, it is the knowledge of the precariousness of their health that seems to make it easier to let go. Fields is in the final year of his three-year, US$19-million deal, while Rose has US$60-million owed to him over the next three years, and that unquestionably makes it easier to access that perspective. It is refreshing, on occasion, to hear those mature viewpoints expressed.
Fields went through the league’s mandated concussion protocol repeatedly, failing before and after the Christmas break. Once more, he displayed a level head, despite never having suffered a concussion previously. He was in contact with players who had debilitating concussions, ones that sidelined players for months at a time.
“It could have been worse,” Fields said. “I wasn’t like dizzy. No nausea or anything like that. No headaches. It was more so just brain processing. It was kind of just like having little speed bumps. I was like, ‘I don’t ever do that.’ And my memory was a bit shaky. All of a sudden I’d lose my train of thought. Other than that, it really wasn’t too bad.”
Based on the expectations when the Raptors signed him in 2012, Fields will go down as one of the most disappointing free-agent signings in franchise history. He was supposed to be the connective tissue of the team’s starting lineup. Then-general manager Bryan Colangelo compared him favourably to former Raptors cult hero Jorge Garbajosa. Fields would bring with him a serviceable three-pointer, savvy passing and off-the-ball movement and excellent wing defence.
That has not happened. Given Fields’ nerve issue, it never had a chance to happen. As he plays out the end of that ill-fated deal, though, you cannot help but feel that his time in Toronto has been crucially revelatory in his life, nonetheless.
“Of course, yeah, I came back and I was finally playing and it was great,” Fields said. “But going down, things happen. It comes with the game. You learn to roll with it.”
Source:: National Post
