INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Less than a month after Kyle Korver‘s younger brother Kirk died from a sudden illness at the age of 27, the Cleveland Cavaliers guard finds himself in the midst of a playoff run while simultaneously managing a heavy heart and a persistent foot injury that hasn’t allowed him to play up to his standards.
“It’s been a hard month,” Korver said after Cavs practice on Tuesday. “You come back from dealing with death in the family and you hold that in one hand and you hold the playoffs here in another hand and it’s interesting to kind of balance both of those at the same time and try to get yourself ready to play basketball and I’ve been hurt.
“Yeah, I feel like it’s been a very complicated month in my mind, but I feel like I’m in a good spot right now and I’m ready to play.”
Korver, who says he has a “really deep bruise” in his right foot that bothered him for the last several weeks of the regular season, is cleared to play in Wednesday’s Game 2.
He was a shell of himself in Game 1, playing just four minutes and going 0-for-3 from the field with a turnover in Cleveland’s 98-80 loss to the Indiana Pacers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he came down with a sickness after the game that caused him to miss Monday’s practice.
“I couldn’t sleep I was coughing so hard,” Korver said, sucking on a lozenge in between answers to reporters.
Needless to say, it’s been a trying time for the 15-year veteran.
“I have strong faith and I have strong family,” Korver said when asked how he’s been able to get through it all. “I’ve got a great wife so I can process things and talk about things and be encouraged about things … The grieving process is like, what is good? What is good? You know, that you don’t cry when you think about your brother? Is that good? I don’t think that’s good. I think I’m on the … on a good spot on this path.
“I feel like I’m trying to go through all the emotions and stages and waves that people tell me about. I understand that this is part of life and when you go through something like this, it’s amazing how many people come up to you and talk about their own stories that they’ve had, there have been so many. They’re hard and they’re hard to hear but it’s also very comforting to know that you’re going through this with a lot of people and a lot of people care about you.”
Korver said he’s heard from people all over the basketball world and received flowers, cards, notes and calls.
“I got text messages from almost everyone in the NBA,” Korver added. “It was overwhelming. It was incredible.”
He delivered a eulogy at his brother’s services in late March and spent more than a week away from the Cavs, something he was sure to thank the organization for on Tuesday.
“I think if your brother has to die, you want something good to come of it,” he said. “You know, it will take a long time to see the good that comes from that. I don’t really know if I have the head space for that all the way that right now to think about all that.”
For now, he is looking to hoops to help with the healing process.
“It’s good to go back into work,” he said. “It’s good to have something else to do, something to really try at, too. That’s been the frustrating thing with my foot, I couldn’t just go and play really hard because that’s what I want to do. Just play really hard. Whether it’s good or bad, I just want to play really hard. But I couldn’t, I haven’t been able to just because of it. It’s good to have something now to kind of sink into, just for a little bit of every day kind of get lost in and try harder.”
With everything he’s been through, what’s a 1-0 playoff deficit to add to his plate?
“Don’t we all long for those days (where we make it easier on ourselves). Digging ourselves out of holes in life, right?” he said. “Yeah, definitely need a better start. Just set the tone for the game and how we want to play and who we are, get ourselves some positive energy going.”
Source : ESPN
