His second year in the
NBA was only three games old on Nov. 4.
The statistics said
he came off the bench in those first three games and
was instant shake-and-bake offense.
Read 'em and weep - averages of 11
points, 1.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists,
1 steal and 17.3 minutes in three games.
In his part time
bit of three wars, he was first in the NBA's
three-point field goal percentage
(.600). He scored a season high 18 points
on Nov. 2 against Denver and also
snagged three rebounds in the same game.
Two days later, against San Antonio,
he had seven assists in 21 minutes. It
was to end as a painful night.
But now, things were
a lot different. Now, on a cloudy Thursday
afternoon, Vonteego Cummings sits
quietly in his mom and dad's home on
McLean Street in Thomson, Georgia.
He's a continent away from where he
wants to be.
His face puffy,
the after effects of facial surgery done to repair a
by-product of basketball battles,
you could tell without a doubt there was
somewhere else the 24-year-old back-up
guard for the Golden State Warriors
was supposed to be.
But no, instead,
he stares straight ahead at pictures of family and
friends arranged neatly on a table
his mother Carri keeps next to a wall
full of pictures and clippings about
her son. His mind wanders back to the
fourth quarter of the Warriors'
117-105 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on
Saturday, Nov. 4.
He had the ball
and was driving the lane. He got fouled by a defender
and fell face first into teammate
Adonal Foyle's knee. He was out for a few
minutes they said. When he got to
the locker room, he was woozy and could
hardly stand. They kept asking him
what day it was and what his name was.
It was too many questions. All he
knew was it hurt.
X-rays and reviews
showed Vonteego had suffered a concussion and the
blow had shattered his right cheekbone.
"The nerves in
my face hurt when I moved. It was painful. They talked
to me about letting it heal naturally,
but said it would take a long time.
Dr. Glen Lau said this surgery would
bring me around faster," Vonteego said.
The steel plate
is now securely in place now. Dr. Lau placed it there
over broken fragments of cheekbone
during three hours of surgery at
Oakland's Summit Medical Center
Nov. 8. Carri said her son spent a few
hours in recovery and then went
back to his Oakland home.
"They said as long
as it didn't bleed and there were no complications,
he could go home. He was in the
hospital for about six hours and then he
went home with me. He's kinda' tough,"
said Carri.
She saw her son
crash to the floor during a TV telecast of the game.
Two days later, after she learned
of the severity of his injury, she hopped
on a westbound steel bird.
"I wanted to
wait to see if he was hurt bad. I know he's tough, but
when it was apparent he was injured
severely, I had to go," said Carri.
So now, Vonteego
waits and watches his teammates carry on without him.
He came home Tuesday. A chance to
get away from Oakland and the hurt of not
being able to contribute to a game
he so dearly loves.
Vonteego said
Warrior General Manager Garry St. Jean said he could go
home with his mother for a couple
of days to continue healing. He will jet
back to Oakland Monday.
"It's good to
be home," he said. "When mom was out there with me in
California after my surgery, it
was great to be able to eat her cooking. It
was the best thing about a bad time,"
Vonteego said.
Now that he's
home, he's keeping the roads of McDuffie County hot -
visiting friends and relatives and
speaking to kids at a neighboring
county's school.
"I went over to an
elementary school in Washington (Ga.) Wednesday. They
invited me. It was fourth graders
and they were funny. They wanted to know
what life was like in the NBA and
if I was having fun. I told them it was
fun sometimes. But not the traveling
and different towns. It gets old after
awhile," said Vonteego.
There's a problem
with being at home. There is no touching the orange
ball, no caressing that sphere that
brings him such joy.
"Dr. Lau
told me not to even pick up a basketball. I've always got one
around, but I don't pick it up.
I want to heal. I want to be 100 percent. I
want to come back strong," Vonteego
says.
But while he's
waiting the four to six weeks it will take him to get
back on the hardwood, Cummings watches.
"I saw
us lose to Sacramento by two Wednesday night on TV. I hated to
see it. We should win those. We
only had 10 turnovers and they had
20-something," he said as he drew
a sigh.
Cummings was
a standout at Thomson High School, two miles from his
parent's home. He was a star for
the Pittsburgh Panthers during college
years. But that was then, this is
now.
While he loves
his parents, he wants to be thumpin' the hardwood,
passin' the rock to the open man,
looking around the perimeter and then
making the laser passes to his teammates
in the paint - that's where he
wants to be.
But instead,
he sits in a recliner; his right eye puffy with a red cap
pulled down a little to shade his
eyes from the overhead light in the
Cummings' den. He doesn't want to
have his picture made. He says he wants
to wait until he's productive again.
"I usually wear
sunglasses to protect my eye from the light and the
sun. It still hurts some," he says.
While Vonteego
is working to return, the Warriors, with a record of 1-7
(the last seven consecutive) are
looking like an ARMY MASH unit. Vinny Del
Negro is out with a sprained left
ankle and Chris Mills is nursing a
bruised lower back. Danny Fortson
has a sore right foot and Bob Sura is
hurting from a back injury.
"I know we're
hurting a little, but it's just one of those things we
work through. Like Wednesday night.
We were in there close with those
injuries. When everyone is right,
we'll be strong," said the eternal
optimist.
In a few days
or a week, not soon enough for Vonteego, he will be
fitted with another protective mask.
I say another because remember, he
wore (and hated) a mask for about
two weeks after his nose was broken
during a game at Houston last season.
"They say this
one will be different because my cheek is hurt and not
my nose. I can't begin to imagine
what it will look like," he said with a
laugh.
The Warriors,
his hometown of 10,000 and his huge adopted hometown of
Oakland want Vonteego back in action
as soon as possible. Soon can't come
soon enough for him.
"I want to play,
but I'm committed to do whatever it takes to get well.
It hurts to see the team going and
know that I've got to spend some time on
the bench healing up. It'll be O.K.
though. If that's what it takes, than
that's what I'll do," Vonteego said,
as he seemed to be thinking of the far
away place he'd rather be.
