Playing with marbles part of Isaiah Canaan’s long road back to Phoenix Suns

PHOENIX – The sound pierced the arena. The sound, though, belonged to those in attendance and not the player now lying on the court.

The crowd’s collective reaction was understandable. The non-reaction from the player was remarkable, even to this day.

“Obviously, I guess, when something traumatic happens to your body it just automatically goes in shock,” Isaiah Canaan said.

Traumatic, that’s putting it mildly.

Canaan’s left ankle was pointed 90 degrees to the left, the result of an awkward landing after he was fouled attempting a lay-up in the first quarter against the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 31.

Immediately, players turned away. Some on the Phoenix Suns bench pulled their jersey up over their head or buried their face in a towel.

“It was an emotional moment for a lot of our players,” interim head coach Jay Triano said.

Fast forward two months and Canaan is not only walking fine but on Tuesday he was spotted after practice shooting set shots.

Canaan has a long road ahead — jumping and running are completely off limits, though, he can ride a bike — still, but it’s amazing how far he has come in just a short amount of time.

“It’s interesting. I’m at home sitting around, saying like, wow, just two months ago I had two right foots and now I’m walking around doing strength training and just trying to come back,” he said Wednesday, speaking to reporters for the first time since the injury.

Triano, too, is surprised by Canaan’s recovery.

“He was walking through the parking garage, I think, probably two weeks and I didn’t recognize who it was. It can’t be you. It can’t be you walking like that already,” Triano said. “He was going slow but it was a natural gait and a natural walk and I was like, ‘This is crazy how fast you’ve recovered.’”

At the time of the injury, while everyone else sat or stood horrified at the image of an ankle bent sideways, Canaan had a different reaction.

“I didn’t really feel a thing. I tell people I was more mad (because) I couldn’t play than I was worried about the injury,” he said.

Just seven weeks earlier — to the day in fact — Canaan signed with the Suns after the team received an injury hardship exemption.

Canaan excelled when his number was called. He averaged 9.1 points, 4.0 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 22.0 minutes. Of the 19 games he played, including one start, 10 were double-digit scoring performances with a season-high 17 points in a win at Dallas on Dec. 18.

Canaan had become a rotation player.

“Things was going well, I was playing well. I worked so hard this past summer and then all of that just be gone like that,” he said, snapping his fingers “because I broke my ankle. So I was more frustrated and more mad that I worked so hard to get to where I was at and playing well to now I can’t play at all.”

Despite how gruesome the injury looked, Canaan admitted he’s watched the play several times. It doesn’t bother him, he said. It bothers his girlfriend and others, but not him.

“I go back and the whole sequence was slow to me. It just felt like a ball of paper being balled up,” he said. “Not knowing my ankle was broke. I grabbed my knee, thinking it was my knee and then I looked down and I was like, ‘Oh (expletive)! Foot.’”

Sitting there on the court, Canaan just wanted to be moved into the locker room. First, though, the ankle had to be reset, which team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tom Carter did before Canaan was stretchered off the floor.

“It was kind of like cracking your neck,” said Canaan, who underwent surgery the next day.

The injury was similar to the one Gordon Hayward suffered in his first game with the Boston Celtics this season. And as luck would have it, Hayward and Canaan share the same agent.

Hayward reached out to Canaan and the two have kept in touch throughout their respective rehabs. In fact, Hayward challenged Canaan in one particular exercise.

“Who can pick up the marbles the fastest, who can pick them up and place them in a bucket the fastest (with your feet),” Canaan said. “It’s an everyday process, picking up marbles, getting the strength back in my feet and my toes. He told me I need to beat his score.”

Recently, Hayward posted a video of the marble exercise on Instagram.

“It’s like shooting but with marbles,” Canaan said, smiling.

Throughout this entire process, even from the very start, Canaan has maintained a positive attitude. The goal, he said, is to be cleared for basketball activity in July and then be full-go by training camp.

“If not 100 percent, very close to it,” he said. “I just try to set mini goals every day and every week, and as long as I’m seeing progress, I’m happy.”

The Suns were forced to waive Canaan on Feb. 8 to make room for Elfrid Payton.

Though not officially on the roster, Canaan has stayed a part of the organization. He’s at practices, he’s at shootarounds, he’s at games. The Suns have even allowed him to use their facility to rehab.

More importantly, Canaan has been told he’s wanted back next season.

“I understood (being waived). We needed a point guard. Any way I can help, whether I’m playing whether I’m not playing, I’m all for it. I was fine with it. They told me ‘Hey, if you’re healthy we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.’ Just knowing that they still had that confidence in me and want me to be apart of this team, that means a lot,” he said.

“It’s motivation for me just to have all my teammates pushing (and) checking in on me making sure I’m doing alright, making sure that I’m coming back. I told them I’m doing everything I can get back so I can help out and help turn this organization around.”

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