How Warriors’ Marques Bolden got here again from basketball’s most dreaded damage

LAS VEGAS – A grueling, irritating, seemingly-endless 12 months of rehab taught Marques Bolden a lesson he’ll always remember. 

Each rebound secured, shot blocked and step taken on his surgically repaired proper Achilles tendon is to be cherished by the Warriors middle.  

And now, virtually precisely a 12 months after being felled by the identical damage that has devastated stars Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum in latest weeks, Bolden is able to resume his basketball journey on the identical Thomas & Mack Heart court docket it was placed on pause. 

“When you get hurt with an injury like that, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Bolden mentioned. “You’re just focused on the present time. So for me to be back out here and playing and practicing again, I’m just happy to be running up and down.”

One other lesson was realized by Bolden on that day he was injured in Las Vegas. 

He had woken up with a sore calf, however shrugged it off. In spite of everything, athletes are seldom with out some form of ache or ache when enjoying at a excessive stage. In hindsight, he would have carried out issues in a different way. 

“Like, I thought that if you get a good warm-up in, you’ll be OK,” Bolden remembered. “But I guess it was something more than that.” 

Bolden was unable to stroll on his injured tendon for 3 months, and staying constructive was typically a battle. He credited his rapid household and pals for holding him upbeat. 

He additionally leaned upon his fellow Duke alumni for help. 

The 27-year-old recurrently talks with former NBA lottery decide and former school nationwide champion Jahlil Okafor, who additionally tore his Achilles in 2022 and was in a position to present Bolden with recommendation throughout his rehab.

Okafor was not the one former Blue Satan to uplift Bolden. 

“Do what you always do,” is what legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski advised his former participant. “You follow (doctor’s) orders, and you do the rehab and just be patient and stay strong.” 

That was given not as “orders” from a coach to a participant, however from one basketball peer to the opposite. 

Golden State Warriors’ Marques Bolden (20) beneficial properties a rebound towards the Los Angeles Lakers’ Darius Bazley (36) within the second quarter of an NBA Summer season League sport at Chase Heart in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group) 

A bit beneath a 12 months after his damage, Bolden had an analogous message for onetime Duke teammate Tatum after the Celtics famous person suffered an Achilles damage in a playoff sport towards the Knicks. 

“I let him know that there’s definitely better days ahead,” Bolden mentioned. “I know that when you first get hurt, when somebody says that, they feel like they’re the only person who feels that way. It’s tough to see that. So I just try to give him some encouragement.” 

Krzyzewski was not stunned that his former pupil, who arrived on the school powerhouse as a top-ranked recruit out of DeSoto Texas in 2016 and left in 2019 as a reliable presence within the center, remained shut along with his former Duke teammates. 

“We have a brotherhood, and you’re talking about three exceptional human beings in Marques, Jahlil and Jayson,” Krzyzewski mentioned. “Our guys look after one another like brothers.”

Not like many high-profile members of the “brotherhood,” Bolden’s profession has not been one among a star, the one exception being his stints with the Indonesian nationwide crew as a naturalized citizen.

He has performed in 18 NBA video games, spending most of his profession within the G-League as a standard, workmanlike middle who has used his 6-foot-10 body and athleticism to carve out a distinct segment on the finish of NBA benches as a lob menace and rim protector.

As somebody whose NBA profession was already not assured, shedding a step may shut the door endlessly on enjoying on the planet’s prime league. Bolden believes he’s again to about 80% of the place he was pre-injury and is getting nearer to totally wholesome every day. 

In two video games on the latest California traditional, Bolden confirmed that his rebounding prowess didn’t diminish throughout his year-long absence from the court docket, grabbing the second-most boards (10) on the crew regardless of lacking one sport. 

“I want to show that I’m still an athlete,” Bolden mentioned. “An Achilles injury could be seen as a red flag to some, and so I just want to erase the narrative of me not being able to move the same, or me not being able to pick up where I left off.”