Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters: ‘I busted my ass this whole summer, and it shows’
Dion Waiters remembers how he felt entering training camp last season. The confident Heat guard was still rehabbing from ankle surgery.
“I didn’t participate in camp. I was hurt,” Waiters remembers, when asked about that time during Monday’s media day at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I still was battling back just trying to get right.”
But Waiters will be “full go” for the Heat’s first training camp practice Tuesday at Keiser University in West Palm Beach. Waiters dedicated this offseason to his body after Heat president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra challenged him at the end of last season to report to training camp at a lower weight and body fat percentage.
Waiters dropped 15 pounds this summer, and is hoping to shed even more weight during the season.
“I’m healthy and totally different body wise. I’m in a great place,” said Waiters, who is entering the third season of a four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017. “I feel like I had the best summer of my life. I put the work in — I was working out three or four times a day.
“I’m not worried about my game. That wasn’t the problem. I wasn’t at the weight I wanted to play at, I wasn’t explosive like I am now. I’m back to myself, I’m moving better. I just feel great overall.”
Waiters, 27, never reached optimal shape last season after returning from January 2018 surgery on his left ankle. But he worked this offseason with David Alexander, who is the owner of DBC Fitness in Miami and has trained Dwyane Wade and a number of professional athletes.
In order to get the most out of the offseason, there were sacrifices Waiters had to make. Other than giving up fatty foods, Waiters said he told his family that he wasn’t going to be around the house as much as he was in past summers.
“I go lift, I do the court and after the court, I do yoga and after yoga I go back to the court,” Waiters said, describing his offseason regimen. “So I’m working out three to four times a day, everyday. I ain’t really have a lot of days off. I told myself this is the summer I need. I told my mom I’m not gonna be the best son, my girl I’m not gonna be the best boyfriend and I probably wasn’t the best father. I’m a great father, but I really had to lock in and do what’s best for me. They understood. Anywhere I went, I took my chef with me. Made sure I found a gym — I ran constantly.
“I feel like I busted my ass this whole summer, and it shows.”
Waiters, who missed the first 35 games because of ankle surgery, averaged 12 points on 41.4 percent shooting from the field and 37.7 percent shooting on threes, 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 44 games (28 starts) last season. He also averaged a career-high 6.6 three-point shot attempts per game and fewer drives to the basket, as he worked his way back.
The goal is for Waiters to eventually get back to where he was before the injury, when he averaged 18.4 points on 46.7 percent shooting to go with 4.8 assists during the Heat’s 30-11 finish to 2016-17.
“I haven’t forgotten who Dion Waiters can be when he’s in world class shape,” Spoelstra said Monday. “Pat and I mentioned that at the very end of last season, but that’s the expectation. World class conditioning and shape. And he has put in a lot of time into it this summer. When Dion is that kind of shape and conditioning level, he can impact the game on both ends.”
Waiters documented his offseason on social media with videos and photos of his workouts. What he didn’t document was those “dark days” he went through to get to this point.
“I never had surgery before. It was something new to me,” Waiters said. “It was very frustrating. I had a lot of bad days, dark days too. I’m a man at the end of the day. I’m human, too. I was able to overcome all of that. Now I’m here today. Like I said, I told my story to the people and it helped a lot of people out. We’re human and we all go through things. It’s about how you battle back. I used this summer just to show the world, man, that I’m working every day.”
Waiters is one of the top candidates to start at one of the guard spots for the Heat this season. He has started 101 of the 120 games he’s played in with Miami over the past three seasons.
But whether Waiters starts or not, he’s proud of the offseason he had.
“Last year was tough. My body just wouldn’t respond like I wanted to,” he said. “I had doubt about my foot, like is the pain ever going to go away? But as this summer went on, the pain started to go away.
“I’m good now, honestly. It’s fluid. I’m moving and I have no restrictions. With surgery and pain, I never had that before so here and there you might get a funny feeling, but it goes away. As long as I keep taking care of my body, I’m good.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2019 at 3:45 PM.
