Brooklyn Nets wing Dariq Whitehead comes to the organization as the 22nd overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and as a result, comes in with a lot of expectations given his history. At one point, Whitehead was regarded as a top-5 pick after being a McDonald’s All-American and Mr. Basketball USA.
Unfortunately, the Newark, NJ native entered his freshman season at Duke University with a right foot injury that required surgery in August of 2022 to address the issue. Whitehead missed most of the preseason and the first four games of the 2022-23 season dealing with a foot injury.
Whitehead went on to have a successful season for the Blue Devils as he played in 28 games (seven starts) and averaged 8.3 points per game while shooting 42.1% from the field and 42.9% from three-point land. After his one-and-done season at Duke, Whitehead entered the draft, but appeared in most mock drafts as a late first-round pick because of his injury history.
Understandably, everyone has questions about Whitehead’s foot injury being that he had to have a second procedure on the foot in June as was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. At the time, Wojnarowski reported that Whitehead is expected to be recovered by the time training camp rolls around in September. In the meantime, Whitehead addressed his foot injury during an introductory press conference for the Nets’ rookies on Friday:
“Feeling great right now. Like I said, just got to get back to 100%. And, I feel like once I do that, I’ll definitely get back to who I was before the injury. I just want to come here and contribute to winning basketball. I just want to make my teammates better and that’s what I’m here to do.”
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Story originally appeared on Nets Wire