Deron Williams hasn’t taken much time off since joining the Brooklyn Nets in February 2011. During last year’s NBA lockout, Williams was the highest-profile player to make the leap overseas, joining Turkish basketball club Besiktas in Istanbul for fifteen games. He’s had wrist surgery, and various ailments have kept him out of 12 games over the past two seasons.
Williams has dealt with various physical, emotional, and mental struggles since joining Brooklyn, and according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, Williams believes that his lack of resting time has contributed to his struggles:
GM Billy King said on the radio Sunday that Williams might be burnt out from playing consecutive summers overseas (in the Turkish league and Olympics). Williams, who has been dealing with nagging injuries – including a bum ankle and wrist — essentially agreed.
“I didn’t take any time off. After last season, I never stopped working out. After the Olympics, the day I got back I worked out the next morning,” Williams said. “I thought it was the best thing to do, and now looking back, it probably would have been smarter to take some time off and get a little bit of rest, especially on my legs, and my ankles in general.
“I took a lot of pounding over the last year because even though we had a shortened season, I was over in Istanbul, so I haven’t had a break since before then. I felt like I could handle it, and at the time I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to get out of shape. I wanted to just keep going.”
