Wiseman working behind the scenes as Warriors face his hometown team
Knee injury has kept James Wiseman out of Warriors' NBA lineup all season
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 9: Golden State Warriors’ James
Wiseman (33) takes a shot before their game against the Cleveland
Cavaliers at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Jan.
9, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 9: Golden State Warriors’ James
Wiseman (33) takes a shot before their game against the Cleveland
Cavaliers at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Jan.
9, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 10, 2022 at 1:33 p.m. | UPDATED: May 10, 2022 at 1:33 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/10/wiseman-working-behind-the-scenes-as-warriors-face-his-hometown-team/

SAN FRANCISCO – James Wiseman was doing some solo work with resistance
bands and a weighted ball in the hallway at the bottom level of
FedExForum in Memphis as his teammates warmed up for Game 1 and 2 of the
Western Conference Semifinals against the Grizzlies.

He longs to be out there on the court with the Warriors playing in the
high-energy atmosphere of the playoffs against the team from his home
state of Tennessee. Instead, Wiseman changes into street clothes before
the game and stays mainly behind the curtains as he looks ahead to next
season.

“It kind of ticked me off a little bit because I wanted to play against
Memphis in my hometown,” Wiseman said Monday before Game 4 at Chase
Center with a trip already booked to head back to Memphis for Game 5
Wednesday. “But it is what it is, it’s life.”

That idiomatic phrase, “it is what it is,” is the mantra Wiseman has
embraced as he pushes forward and works to get himself ready to be back
on the basketball court.

It’s been 13 months since Wiseman, 21, underwent season-ending surgery
to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee last April. A setback
earlier this season forced him to undergo a second procedure in December.

While it appeared Wiseman was on track to make his season debut in
March, the 7-foot center experienced again swelling in his surgically
repaired knee. The Warriors decided to play the long game with their
2020 lottery pick, effectively shutting him down for the season at the
end of March, much to the disappointment of Wiseman.

“To be honest, I was pissed because I wanted to play,” he said. “I’m
just going to take it one day at a time. God’s got me, and I don’t got
to worry about anything.”

What the Warriors have in Wiseman, the No. 2 pick of the 2020 NBA Draft,
remains a mystery. He’s played in only 45 games total over the last
three seasons with Memphis, the Warriors and the team’s G League
affiliate. He struggled in NBA games last season as a rookie trying to
keep up with the Warriors’ read-and-react offense.

He had mixed performances in his only games this season, with the Santa
Cruz Warriors. In three G League games, Wiseman averaged 17.3 points and
9.7 rebounds. It’s still unclear how he’ll adjust to the speed and
physicality of the NBA when he returns and the toll this long recovery
may have on his mental health.

The adversity Wiseman has experienced over the last three years has
“made him stronger,” he said.

“It just depends on how you respond. I could easily give up and be like,
‘Nah, I don’t want to do this.’ But that’s not in my DNA,” he said. “I’m
going to keep working and keep persevering because I’ve got my faith. I
got God on my side, so I’m not worried about anything.”

Coach Steve Kerr has been impressed by Wiseman’s maturity and ability to
stay positive, despite everything the 21-year-old has gone through, from
being ruled ineligible at Memphis to suffering his late-season setback.

“He’s a diligent worker and he’s putting in the time,” Kerr said. “We’re
very confident that he has a long great career ahead.”

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Wiseman knows he has the talent and skillset to make it in the NBA. But
the last three years have been arguably the biggest test of his mental
fortitude of his young life.

“I really learned a lot about myself during this process. It kept me way
more grounded and it humbled me even more, just to say to myself that
the basketball can be taken away from anybody at any given moment but
it’s like you bounce back from that, it’s how you respond to that,”
Wiseman said. “So really I’m just like keeping an even-keel head,
keeping my mentality right, staying up, staying elevated and just making
sure I stay positive.

“I’m not ever going to give up no matter how hard it gets.”

Wiseman said he’s “feeling great,” though he’s still restricted in what
he can do. There’s no timetable for a return to full-contact activity
and it’s unclear whether he’ll be cleared in time for Summer League in July.

“I obviously want to be out there playing with my teammates but just
keeping an even keel-head and just making sure that I reassure myself
that I’m young, I’m 21 years old, so I got a long career ahead of me,”
he said. “It’s really just taking one day at a time, that’s really it.”

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter