Knicks' G League team announces Festus Ezeli acquisition
Ian Begley: Westchester Knicks announce they’ve acquired Festus Ezeli from the Available Player Pool: pic.twitter.com/nGa0vSAf28
Festus Ezeli Rumors
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Festus Ezeli
Position: -
Born: 10/21/89
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:255 lbs. / 115.7 kg.
Earnings: $13,609,508 ($14,666,196*)
Born: 10/21/89
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:255 lbs. / 115.7 kg.
Earnings: $13,609,508 ($14,666,196*)
Marc J. Spears: Ex-Warriors center Festus Ezeli is in quarantine in the G League Bubble and will be out Sunday, a source told @TheUndefeated. He is a part of the @nbagleague player pool making him eligible to be picked up by any team . He hasn’t played since 2016 NBA Finals due to knee injuries.
Festus Ezeli hopes to make NBA comeback
Finally, Ezeli told himself, the time had come to contact teams in hopes of returning to the NBA. When the G League season starts next week at a bubble environment in Orlando, Ezeli will be part of a waiver pool that allows franchises to claim him. At any point over the following month or so, he could receive a call from someone asking him to pack his bags, board a flight to Florida and play his first pro game in nearly half a decade. At age 31 with an extensive injury history, Ezeli is an unlikely member of basketball’s striving class. In 2016, while with the Trail Blazers after the Warriors renounced his rights in order to sign Kevin Durant, he was diagnosed with a defect in the cartilage of his left knee. Doctors told Ezeli that he needed experimental surgery. His playing days almost certainly seemed over.
As Ezeli spent six months post-surgery confined to a wheelchair and relying on help to use the bathroom, he sank into a deep depression. Basketball had become fundamental to his identity. Without it, he felt lost. “Depression is an understatement,” Ezeli said of that dark period. “Until that point, I never understood the importance of mental health. … But not being able to walk on your own for half a year, you definitely become close friends with depression.”
One night, after watching her son break down in tears, Patricia Ezeli — a Nigerian immigrant and devout Christian — told Festus, “God gave you this mountain so you can show others it can be moved.” The message became a sort of rallying cry for Festus, who believes his life story is a testament to the meaning of the Nigerian first name on his birth certificate, Ifeanyi: “Nothing is impossible with God.”
