I enjoyed my time with him, and it worked out. He’s a very intelligent young man, and he knows how we’ve played over the years. We talked a little bit about defense, which at the time probably wasn’t his favorite topic. “We broke bread together and talked about what would be expected. But it made us go ahead and pull the trigger. They even thought he would be ready for training camp, which really surprised us.
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“He can really score, and from all the reports we were getting, his Achilles healed rather quickly. “We needed to add some talent to our team, and he was a gifted player,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. The team was comfortable offering a contract to Gay afterward. The Spurs brought their medical team to meet with Gay and Ferguson. Montgomery gave each team a medical report detailing everything from surgery to recovery and also made his client’s athletic trainer, Eric Ferguson, available to talk.
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Gay met with the Spurs, Kings, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder during the first three days of free agency. I was like, ‘OK, this is your decision, so you have to work your a– off.’ ” The fact that I wanted to play in the playoffs. It was one of those situations that made me get up in the morning.
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“I was down, and I knew I had to do something,” Gay said. The former University of Connecticut star added that he wanted to work as hard as he could for his family, himself and his future team. Gay said there was positive pressure that came from opting out of his contract that added to his daily motivation in rehabilitation. Three days after, he said he had this motivation to defy the odds.” “So many people said that it was a tough injury that ends careers. “Rudy was motivated to defy the odds and come back strong,” Montgomery said.
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Gay’s agent, Roger Montgomery, recalled a lot of negativity that Gay heard about guys his age who suffer that injury. Gay had surgery five days later, expecting to be ready for the start of the 2017-18 season. 18, 2017, against the Indiana Pacers, ending his season. He suffered a complete tear of his left Achilles tendon on Jan. Gay helped his free-agent-to-be cause as he averaged 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30 games with the Kings during the 2016-17 season. The team also made it less attractive for Gay to return, as they traded All-Star forward DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans during the night of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. The Kings have not been in the playoffs since 2006. It was one of those downs where I was like, ‘I’m not going to let this happen again.’ ”įrustrated with the losing and rebuilding, Gay opted out of his contract with the Kings that would have paid $14 million during the 2017-18 season. “I was down this time of year before because I wanted to play in the playoffs.
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“I was in my boot and I was at a local sports bar around my house thinking about what I could be doing, how I could be healthy and how I could be in the playoffs the next year,” the 31-year-old Gay said. Today, he is realizing what he envisioned as a starting forward for the San Antonio Spurs. While watching the opening day of the 2017 NBA playoffs at a sports bar near his offseason home in South Florida, Gay daydreamed about a return to the postseason. And to make matters more challenging, Gay was recovering from a season-ending Achilles tendon injury. His chances of returning to the postseason were bleak if he remained with the Sacramento Kings. OAKLAND, California - Rudy Gay had amassed just seven career playoff games in 11 NBA seasons.