Golden State Warriors bigman James Wiseman admitted he will enter next season with a chip on his shoulder after missing the entire 2021-22 campaign due to injury.
Wiseman wasn’t able to help the Warriors during their triumphant 2022 playoff and detailed the struggles he had to go through in order to remain focused and be able to return.
“I’ve been through a lot of low moments,” he said. “Some days, I wasn’t feeling it, some days I couldn’t work out because mentally I wasn’t there, but I just found ways to push through it every day … even when I was going through my emotional breakdowns and stuff,” Wiseman said via Madeline Kenney of The Press Democrat.
As it turns out, it wasn’t just the physical aspect of the game that dragged him down. Wiseman also battled through a lot of mental hurdles — all of which he emerged victorious from.
Wiseman showed promise as a rim-running big in his rookie year despite the ups and downs that he had to go through in his first season.
Sixteen months after tearing the meniscus in his right knee, Wiseman is back and perhaps more determined than ever to make a positive impact with the Warriors.
“It actually lit some more fire inside of me,” Wiseman said on missing the past season. “It actually made (my love for the game) better in a good way because I missed the game so much so it just made my ambition grow, or get stronger.”
The Warriors re-signed Kevon Looney to a three-year, $25.5 million deal the past month and as a result the Dubs will integrate Wiseman from the bench.
