After Bad Breaks, Hayes Ready for Breakout

Wizards shooting guard Jarvis Hayes expects his fourth season to be his best after suffering major knee injuries each of the past two seasons. (Preston Keres - The Washington Post)

When asked about the decision not to have surgery initially, Grunfeld said: "That was the advice we had from our medical staff, and we don't second-guess that. At the time, it was a very uncommon thing to have happen again."

Looking back, Hayes said he wishes he had surgery the first time he was injured. He said he harbors no resentment toward the organization for not X-raying the injury right away. "Maybe we should've got [an X-ray]. Maybe I wouldn't have missed last year, because it wouldn't have been a complete fracture," Hayes said. "Hindsight is 20-20. The team doctors, I look at them with no animosity. They didn't know. They're human. I don't look at them with an evil heart. It's something that happened, and we all will get through it. I was feeling good about last season. I was at a point where I didn't think I'd get injured again, but it happened."

Hayes said the second injury was tougher to deal with, because it forced him to spend more time away from the game and left him feeling disconnected from the team. With his knee brace prohibiting him from bending his leg, Hayes couldn't sit on the bench to cheer on his teammates and often had to watch home games from the locker room and road games from his home in Virginia. "I knew my name was on the roster, but I really didn't feel like a part of the team," Hayes said.

Hayes spent a lot of time by himself, playing video games and finding inspiration listening to the song "Butterfly" by R&B singer India.Arie. Hayes considers the past two seasons as his time in a cocoon. The surgery, which included having two screws placed in his kneecap, kept him from running until June. He played five-on-five basketball for the first time in early September, an experience he said nearly moved him to tears. During his rehab, Hayes said he received the best encouragement possible when he crossed paths with Jordan -- the man responsible for selecting Hayes -- who told him, "If I had to do it again, I'd still draft you number 10."

"I'll do anything for Coach Jordan. I'll do anything for this organization," Hayes said. "I hadn't played in a couple of years. They could've easily put me on the back burner, but they still have confidence in me and that means a lot. At the end of the day, it's a business, but that's not what it's all about. That they have confidence in me, it means the world to me."

Hayes was completing a workout on the team's practice court at Verizon Center recently, knocking down a series of three-pointers from five spots around the arc. After his final shot splashed through the net, Wizards assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. wouldn't let him leave without one more drill. Hayes needed to sprint down the court, sprint back, catch a pass from Unseld and explode toward the basket for a finish.

Five times up, and five times down, Hayes couldn't dunk and barely had enough lift to drop in finger rolls; his weary legs feeling as if they were attached to 20-pound sandbags. "That was tough, buddy. Tough. Tough. Tough," Hayes said of the exhausting workout, shaking his head. "But you know what? I wasn't hurting. I wasn't in pain."

Hayes, sporting an eight-inch-long scar down the middle of his right knee, has been through enough in the past two years to know the difference. "This league is 'What have you done for me lately?' And I hadn't really played to my capability," Hayes said. "Not using an excuse, but I always look at it as, 'What if I hadn't gotten hurt?' I kind of use it as motivation now. Long as the Wizards keep their confidence in me, I'll bounce back."