Brooklyn Nets assistant athletic trainer talks Caris LeVert injury recovery

The Brooklyn Nets were faced with a scare last season after the gruesome injury of Caris LeVert. His return to the team was a credit to his rehab program

The regular season and possibly career looked in jeopardy for Brooklyn Nets forward Caris LeVert after a horrific leg injury during a November 12, 2018 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The three-year player was stretchered off the floor and taken to a nearby hospital where he was later diagnosed with a subtalar dislocated foot and would not require surgery.

The team announced via their twitter that he would begin a rehab program immediately in hopes of returning later in the season.

"“Fortunately, tests performed this morning revealed that there are no fractures and only moderate ligament damage. While the optics of this injury may have appeared to be more severe, surgery will not be required. Caris will begin a period of rehabilitation with the Nets’ performance staff, following which he is expected to return to full strength and resume all basketball activities without any limitations this season.”"

LeVert would eventually return to the court on February 8th of this year to a standing ovation in front of the home crowd. Brooklyn Nets assistant athletic trainer Jana Austin spoke with Empire Writes Back during the team’s recent youth clinic and discussed her role as well as LeVert’s rehab strategy.

Can you give an idea of the work ethic needed to get you to this point in your career working in the NBA, with the Nets?

"“Yeah, so the misconception is “Oh, you’re just at the highest level- everything’s just fun and games” no, no, no- so working at that level, you literally dedicated your life to it, I am with them 24/7 for nine months straight, and even outside of those guidelines when we are in the offseason, I get maybe 2 weeks off and after that, we start back with draft workouts then we have to get ready for Summer League, so it is really would you do this and then make it to this level, just like with the players? You are dedicated and you are understanding that you are literally dedicating your whole entire time that you are with them to them, and so you have to be dedicated, you have to show hard work, you have to be passionate about whatever you do… you have to love what you do.If you don’t love it, it’s not going to be fun and my biggest thing is yes, it’s a lot of hard work, yes, there are a lot of sleepless nights but at the end of the day as when I lay my head down, I know I love it. So for me, working with the guys on a day-to-day basis, doing a lot of injury prevention care, a lot of like first aid and hands-on, helping with the rehab side of it, so it’s definitely more on the medical side versus like the personal training side people kind of get that misconception that like we’re trainers, but yeah, we’re more on the medical side sports medicine, So I love it, it’s awesome.”"

Will you be making the trip to Vegas for the NBA Summer League as well?

“Yes, I will be heading the Summer League team, I’ll be the athletic trainer for that, I’m definitely excited just to get out there, it’s going to be a long 2 weeks, but I’m just excited to be able to see the guys developing Nic Claxton and Jaylen Hands who were just drafted seeing them in action.”

What do people not realize in the recovery process of a player trying to come back? 

"“It’s more than just “Okay, we’re fine today,” like, we have to listen to the body, we have to understand the healing process, we have to be mentally strong and in those aspects because a lot of times it’s frustrating when they want to go back out, but their body literally is not healed yet, and we have to hold them back. So it takes a lot of dedication on their end because they also have to stay ready in the game and understanding different plays but then when they come to see us, they have to be giving it a 100 percent with their rehab and it can get frustrating because you may feel fine but we know that’s your body’s like, “No, not yet.We have to wait another week,” or you know, whatever the case may be, so it just shows how dedicated they really are to their craft and just understanding their body better and that’s when is to educate them, and educate being around them on how the healing process works and how to get them stronger and better, so that when they do return, they’re better than when they first got injured.”"

After Caris LeVert’s injury, what were the expectations when the injury initially happened and eventually getting to the point he was able to play in the playoffs? 

"“Well, initially, we just wanted to take care of the injury itself. It was just a matter of managing the injury to the best of our ability and then we had our Director of Rehab Stefania Rizzo head his rehab which she was amazing at, but we didn’t create any timelines anything like that until we were ready to. The initial thing was making sure Caris was okay and now we have him in the most optimal environment and space to grow and to rehab and to come back. So for us, that’s basically that was our main point, it’s not a timeline, it was more so seeing how his body reacted and going from there.”"

LeVert’s rehab speed was a credit to the great work done in the Nets training staff and could serve as another reason free agents should choose Brooklyn next week.