“It’s good for myself and the young guys just to see somebody like that go through the stages of being that guy to accept a role coming off the bench, be a role player.”ĭeMar DeRozan also recalls Gay at his point-scoring best. “Being a fan of basketball, I know a lot about Rudy, his years in Memphis, Sacramento, all those places,” said Dejounte Murray, the Spurs’ 25-year-old point guard.
#Rudy gay injury 2017 how to#
Instead, Gay has developed into a role model for younger Spurs about how to age gracefully in the NBA. If Gay had been a player, even post-injury, who needed 18 shots per game, the marriage would not have worked. You never really know what makes a player tick until you get him in your own locker room. In truth, the Spurs did not know what they were getting when Gay signed here in 2017. “That’s just part of being competitive,” he said. Gay describes the change in his job description in a different way. “He understands that and that’s what he does for us.” “It works best for us, with the personnel we have, to have that scoring come off the bench,” Popovich said. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he has received no blowback on a bench role from Gay, who averaged 18 points or better in nine of his first 11 seasons before joining the Spurs. Before the end of the week, he is likely to eclipse former Detroit star Joe Dumars for 104th.īoth players are in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Heading into Sunday’s game against Washington, Gay was averaging 12 points and attempting 9.8 shots per game - a far cry from the volume scorer who averaged 21.1 points and launched 16.4 field goals per game in 2014-15 with Sacramento.Įarlier this month, Gay passed Los Angeles Lakers great James Worthy for 105th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. In three-plus seasons in San Antonio, Gay has come off the bench for 147 of the 209 regular-season appearances. He also logged 21.6 minutes per game, remains a career low. Gay averaged 11.5 points in his first season with the Spurs, down from 18.7 in his final pre-injury season in Sacramento. In San Antonio, where the Spurs were coming off a 61-win season, he could ease his way back in form without the added burden of being a team’s go-to star. It was a low-cost gamble for the Spurs, and an easy sell for Gay. The Spurs signed Gay to a free-agent deal for two years and $18.4-million. He arrived in San Antonio in the summer of 2017 simply glad to be able to walk again after the brutal injury that ended his time in Sacramento. Gay’s transition - from leading scorer to role player, top-of-the-marquee attraction to supporting actor - has been four seasons in the making. “But this year, I am changing my role to being a different player, try to make as many open shots as I can and try to make plays for others.” “For the most part in my career, I have been asked to take tough shots and make tough shots,” Gay said. Then Gay got on the wrong side of 30, blew out an Achilles tendon with the Kings in 2017 and came to San Antonio to reclaim his career as a bench player.
TV/radio: FSSW WOAI-AM 1200 and KXTN-AM 1350 and FM 107.5.