Dereck Lively II is tired of all the internet chatter surrounding the level of progress — or lack thereof — in his recovery from the foot injury he suffered just seven games into last season.
All you meanies on the internet. All you do is speculate and exaggerate and take things out of context and blow things out of proportion. How dare you, honestly. The nerve. The nerve and the gall.
Lively had season-ending surgery on Dec. 21, as you may remember.
Since then, there was a second procedure, then a startlingly long period of silence about the big man’s recovery, followed by some reports of slower-than-normal progress as the 2026-27 offseason ramped up. In June, the news of note was that, at that point, a full seven months removed from surgery, he hadn’t progressed to running in his rehab. Earlier this week, now more than nine months removed from surgery, it was an ESPN report that Lively had yet to be cleared for training camp, which started Saturday, raising fans’ antennae.
“I’m sick of seeing things on the internet thinking, like, I can’t run, I can’t jump, which I can,” Lively said on the Locked on Mavs podcast on Friday after the team held its media day. “I’m thankful for the Mavs just letting me take my time.”
Oh, you’re tired of it? Two suggestions for the basketball-man-slash-content creator.
- Log off, sir. Being terminally online is not a requirement for a career in the game of basketball. Tim MacMahon reported that ESPN bit. Christian Clark reported the June bit. Those are not internet rumors that sprung up out of nowhere. Those are reports from dudes with sources whose job it is to write down what they learn. If they were wrong on a consistent basis they’d be let go. What they’ve reported has been backed up by the lack of progression you’ve showed in your recovery. If the news or the chatter surrounding the news hurts your feelings, you have the option to get rid of X, The Everything App. But that’s not an option for today’s NBA athlete, much less one who was welcomed to life as “a YouTuber now, just like us,” by Locked On host Nick Angstadt at the beginning of the interview.
- Don’t protest so much (thou doth), especially when you are not playing basketball 10 months after surgery for an injury that was initially disclosed as “soreness.” And especially, especially when those protests will be betrayed by a clip from practice the very next day. Nabbed by the very same outlet you just used to push your narrative that everything’s fine in your recovery and people should just mind their business.
The Locked On guys charitably used the words “light jogging” to describe the broken-down hobble they recorded from the opposite sideline of the practice court. He runs in that clip with the unmistakable gait of the fat kid on your kid’s tee-ball team.
Lively does not appear ready for anything remotely close to basketball activity at this point. And, to be fair, he hasn’t used the word “close” to describe where he’s at. But get a load of that continued quote.
“I’m thankful for the Mavs, that just let me take my time and be slow. Making sure that I’m doing everything I need to do to make sure my body will never have to worry about anything ever again,” Lively said.
That came out of the mouth of a man who played seven games in the third year of his NBA career. That came out of the mouth of a man whose highest games-played total came in his rookie season (55) and has fallen sharply in each of his three years in a Mavericks uniform. Never have to worry about anything ever again? Buddy, when you are done rehabbing this foot, you will immediately be enveloped by team trainers in rolls upon rolls of heavy-duty bubble wrap.
There is no “never worry about anything” with players like Lively.
He’s an amazing athlete. He had a ton of potential coming into the NBA, and we’ll see how much of that he’s retained at some point in the very open-ended future. But he’s also gaslighting you.
Lively can’t run, and you’re in the wrong for noticing.
