Beyond the transition facing all NBA rookies, Romeo Langford also has to undergo a reconstruction.
This one-time top-10 high school recruit not only sacrificed some draft status when he decided to play his entire freshman season at Indiana with a torn ligament in the thumb of his (right) shooting hand. By attempting to compensate for the injury, his mechanics were altered.
“Honestly it kind of did, made me switch up my shot a little bit,” Langford said after being introduced to the media Monday along with fellow draftees Grant Williams, Carsen Edwards and Tremont Waters. “I wasn’t feeling like it did normally, so now that’s one of my big focuses is to get my mechanics back, and my shot to get back to where it used to be.”
Some believe Langford had slid to the Celtics at pick No. 14. Others believe Dany Ainge and his staff actually took this scoring guard higher than his freshman season at Indiana warranted. He ultimately shot .272 from 3-point range — not a great number for an aspiring two-guard.
But Langford also made the decision early to keep playing — and to postpone surgery until after the season — after tearing the ligament in practice the day before a Nov. 27 game against Duke.
He played anyway, shooting 3-for-15 in a 13-point performance, including 0-for-4 from 3-point range. He bounced back a game later with a 20-point, 8-for-13 performance against Northwestern, but Langford’s struggle to shoot would continue.
“It was a whole new experience. No one plays basketball with a cast on their thumb and be able to throw the ball sometimes,” he said. “Took a lot to get used to, so it was harder to shoot. Whole different feeling of the ball without using your thumb. But towards the end of the season I got more used to it and started shooting the ball better.”
Langford also operated mainly in silence.
“He didn’t tell anybody that he injured his thumb, didn’t tell his parents because he knew they would make him have surgery and he didn’t want it,” said his agent, Happy Walters. “He wanted to play. So he sacrificed a lot, because a torn ligament in the thumb of your shooting hand affects everything. He could have called it a day like other players in the draft and probably would have been top eight, but instead he wanted to play. He’s from Indiana, Mr. Basketball, he wanted to play at IU, and a lot of teams held it against him in the draft. So Boston got a steal at 14.”
Back in November, though, Langford’s only thought was to wrap up the injury and keep playing.
“I don’t think he thought about how it would affect him in the draft,” said Walters. “He told me it hurt when he would shoot, but if someone bumped into him it just sent a shooting pain through his whole arm, and then he would be OK. He didn’t really think through the whole issue of the draft. He didn’t have anyone advise him before. He didn’t even tell his parents he needed the surgery — kept it quiet, kept it to himself. His parents didn’t know until April, before they went to the NIT.”
Langford shrugs now.
“The main thing is I just wanted to be there for my team — I didn’t want to let my team down,” he said. “Wanted to be there for my brothers. I didn’t want them to think I was just sitting out. I knew I could play through it. Also, I knew I could NOT play basketball for that long of a time, when I knew I could play through it. I was raised to be tough-minded and do stuff like that. That’s what it came down to.”
Langford, who interviewed with the Celtics during the NBA draft combine, missed out on workouts because of his recovery from thumb surgery. He resumed basketball activities one-and-a-half weeks ago, and may or may not play for the Celtics summer league team in Las Vegas starting on July 6.
“A week-and-a-half ago doctors cleared me. She wants me to shoot, just don’t go too overboard with it. If my thumb starts hurting, that’s when they want me to stop and take a break.”
As coincidence would have it, Langford hired Walters, who represents Marcus Smart, and knows all about a player dealing with this kind of injury. Smart missed the first four games of the 2018 playoffs while recovering from the same surgery.
The difference between the two is that Smart’s development as a shooter has been a career-long struggle. Langford had been considered a good shooter prior to the injury.
“He shot really well in high school. I don’t think it changes anything,” said Walters. “He’s been shooting the last couple of weeks to get back into it. He’s worn the same brace Smart had, same surgery, same doctor.”
