He couldn’t play basketball for months. He couldn’t jump, couldn’t run, and was barely allowed to bend his knees. Egor Demin spent part of his summer stuck in a chair, shooting stationary because that was the only way he was allowed to touch a basketball.
What started as a bone bruise toward the end of his time at BYU turned into a tear of his plantar fascia, a debilitating injury in which the thick band of tissue (the plantar fascia) on the bottom of the foot becomes irritated or structurally damaged.
After participating in the Las Vegas Summer League, the Brooklyn Nets medical staff shut him down completely. When he finally returned, the pain was still there.
And yet, he says it helped him. All the frustration, all the limitations, all the days he couldn’t even run down the court. Somehow it ended up working to his benefit, allowing him to pack on some much-needed muscle ahead of his transition to the NBA.
“My mom always tells me everything happens for a reason,” Demin said recently on Jimmer Fredette’s “From the Logo Podcast”, the first time he’s spoken about the injury and recovery in detail. “So that was the moment when I had the chance to gain muscle. I wasn’t running, I was lifting for three hours and eating like crazy. Since the draft, I’ve gained like 12 pounds.”
It might have been discouraging at the time, but Demin says it ended up being one of the best things that could have happened to him
“It was really hard to not play basketball and be super limited at that point. It was a super long process,” Denim said. “But I’m happy I went through it because I had the chance to bulk up and get stronger. It prepared me for what was coming in the NBA.”
One of the only things he could do was shoot from a chair. That eventually progressed to shooting from under the basket without bending his knees. It was all rhythm, mechanics and muscle memory. And maybe that was the reset he didn’t know he needed. And few knew what was going on. Sean Marks almost casually revealed the injury on Media Day at the end of September and Demin couldn’t even go full bore in practice till October 9 when the Nets were in Macao.
Now, he’s letting it fly with more confidence and efficiency than he ever did at BYU. He shot 27.3% from deep in college. He’s at 38% this year so far and doing it in volume as well. taking five threes a game.
During the Nets loss to Boston, he hit four threes early and finished 4-of-7 while totaling 12 points. He played limited minutes in the second half but so much development is ups and downs.
He credits the Nets coaching staff and the work he put in throughout the summer for his turnaround.
“It comes from the summer work for sure. That was one of my biggest focuses,” Denim said. “People were questioning my 3-point shot a lot, questioning if I would even shoot them. I’m lucky to have a really good coaching staff around me here that wants me to shoot any time I can.”
Even Fredette, the top shooter in their alma mater’s history, gave his stamp of approval.
“Man, you’re turning into me,” Fredette joked. “You’re just shooting 3-pointers. I love to see it, it’s phenomenal. Keep up that range. The form looks great.”
Eventually, the conversation drifted to something more personal.
Demin spoke honestly about what the move from BYU to the NBA has felt like. He mentioned that another BYU alum and former NBA player Travis Hansen used to remind him to enjoy the college life while he could, because the NBA life comes with a whole new level of pressure. Hansen ultimately became Demin’s advisor and was sitting with him and his family in the Green Room when Adam Silver called his name on June 25.
“It’s a different level of responsibility. It’s your job, and you can lose it in any moment. It was hard for me to get used to this life where I’m like, OK, I’ve got to be a grown man. I’ve got to approach things much more seriously. And I’ve got to understand the responsibilities I have for myself,” Demin said.
And even with all the new weight on his shoulders, he said the people around him have kept him steady.
“I’m surrounded by people who really want me to succeed. This helped me stay on track and stay healthy mentally.”
Demin also told Fredette that his transition from Provo to Brooklyn hasn’t been flawless. There’s the shock of rent in the city housing market.
“I paid my rent, which was not easy. It was… it was frustrating.” the Russian teenager told Fredette. “Coming from Utah to New York and paying for rent—it’s pretty hard, I can’t lie. That wasn’t, mentally, the easiest thing.:
Like other young New Yorkers, he’s had to deal with other financial decisions.
“Um, I got some needs—some clothes, you know. I’ve got to—now I’ve got to be on the same level with the status in clothes.” he said “And yeah, just kind of stuff like this. Furniture costs a lot here too. Furniture—it also hurt. But we’ll see. I’m not planning to buy a car this year, so I don’t think there’s going to be a big purchase. I think I’m just going to—again—I’m just going to try to be smart with my money and, yeah, look for the opportunities where to invest it and make sure they’re safe.”
But unlike other young people, don’t expect him to party … much … he says. One reason is that his teammates are a lot different from who he hung out with at BYU.
“Uh, you know, from college at BYU, we go—we do bonfire, we go play bowling, you know, hikes, things like this,” he said. “And here every—you know, majority of people have families. Some guys have kids, wives, and, you know, then everybody’s tired. Nobody wanna really go and hang out. And if they do, it’s—majority of time, it’s a club or something like this.”
And that has made him less of a party animal, more of a home body. “Yeah, yeah. Which—which I’m not—I’m not trying to go to those places, that’s for sure.”
Things are looking up for Demin after his introduction to NBA life. On Wednesday, he announced on Instagram that he’s become a “Way of Wade” athlete for Li-Ning, the big Chinese footwear company. The Nets hope things keep improving.
