“I’m super blessed,” Toppin told reporters in Indianapolis, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been out there on the floor, but to be on the floor today, it felt amazing.”
Toppin didn’t miss a game in two seasons with the Dayton Flyers from 2018-20. He averaged 72.4 appearances in his first five seasons in the NBA.
Then Toppin’s sixth season in the league and third in Indiana came to a halt after three games. Until Thursday, he had not appeared in a game since Oct. 25. He was diagnosed with a partial stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot. Dr. Martin O’Malley of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City performed surgery on Toppin.
Toppin first thought he had a hamstring injury. Then he underwent an MRI, and a crack in the foot was discovered.
“We, as a group, felt like it was best to get the surgery and not have to think about it or even worry about it,” he said. “I got the surgery and just worked extremely hard to get to where I am today.”
The long rehabilitation process was hard because Toppin said he can’t sit still. “I’m always doing something,” he said. He even took a few shots while moving around on a scooter.
To get back on the court, Toppin said, “it was just a matter of gaining back that strength in my foot and trusting it again, and just being in contact with the doctors, making sure I’m taking the appropriate steps.”
The Pacers reached the NBA Finals last season before losing in seven games to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Without Toppin, who averaged 10.5 points in the regular season and 11.0 points in the finals, and also guard Tyrese Haliburton, who wore his Achilles heel in Game 7, Indiana has the worst record (15-45) in the Eastern Conference this season.
The loss Thursday was Indiana’s fifth in a row. Despite the state of the team, Toppin wanted to play again this season.
“I always want to be out there on the floor,” he said. “I was not rushing to come back, but I definitely want to go out there. We’re still a team. We’ve still got to find that rhythm. We’re not having the greatest year this year, but we have standards. We have things that we go by. Playing the right way for the team, whether that’s this year or next year, we have to show the younger guys how this goes.”
Toppin tries not to worry about his health now that he has returned to action.
“I know that my foot’s good right now,“ he said. ”Dr. O’Malley did an amazing job on surgery, and once he said that I was good to go, I try not to think about it while I’m out there, because I don’t want it to slow me down. I might not have the same explosion I had at the end of the season last year, but as these games go on, I’m going to start to get that back and find my rhythm and all of that.”
In other NBA news involving former Flyers:
Twice in the last week, two former Flyers have played in the same NBA game.
• Toumani Camara scored 12 points in a 92-77 victory on Feb. 22 for the Portland Trail Blazers against the Phoenix Suns and Koby Brea, who scored three points in two minutes in his fifth appearance of the season. Brea has spent most of the season in the NBA G League, where he’s averaging 14.5 points for the Valley Suns.
• Two days earlier, DaRon Holmes II scored nine points in seven minutes for the Denver Nuggets in a 157-103 victory against the Blazers. Camara, who averages 13.1 points, scored 10 points.
Holmes has averaged 4.2 points in 17 appearances. He has been with the Suns since late December and last appeared in a G League game on Dec. 21.
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