Seventeen months. That is how long Golden State Warriors center Festus Ezeli had to wait to put back on a Warriors uniform after his young career was put on hold just one season in, due to a series of big and small injuries.
At the end of the 2012-13 season, Ezeli had surgery to repair a ligament in his right knee that was supposed to only sideline him for a little over half of the season.
His return date kept getting pushed back, and eventually he ended up missing the entire 2013-14 campaign.
His long awaited return was supposed to come during Summer League in Las Vegas, but again another setback took place when Ezeli developed shin inflammation that held him out.
Ezeli was also held out of preseason play for the first six games, but on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers, he made his return, which was long overdue, and on none other than his 25th birthday.
The Warriorstook care of business, 125-107, on bobble head night for Andre Iguodala.
Ezeli stole the show with his performance, recording 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting in just 11 minutes of play, and reminded the league and fans everywhere what they missed last season.
Although only a preseason game, Ezeli had his “I’m back” moment when he sent back a Jordan Cunningham shot, then followed up with a turn-around post fade away.
After the game Festus spoke about his return, and how it felt being on the court for the first time in almost a year and a half.
“It felt pretty good. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of hard work put in [by] me, my coaches, [the] training staff. It really does feel good to be back,” Ezeli said post-game in the locker room, “It felt like I never left.”
One reporter asked Ezeli about his nerves before checking in, and as you would expect, there were some butterflies.
“I needed something good to go for me so I could get rid of those butterflies, but yeah, after I got the blocked shot I was good,” he added, “[I was] nervous because it was my first time playing in a long time, nervous because it was at home, nervous because it was my birthday, my family was here. It was a lot of things, but overall I was excited to be back.
“It’s just been so long since I’ve been out here with my teammates, and it just felt pretty good”
Ezeli and the rest of the Warriors will hit the court again at Oracle Arena on Friday against the Denver Nuggets on Stephen Curry Bobblehead night. The game starts at 7:30PM PDT and will be livetweeted from @LetsGoWarriors twitter page.
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