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Since Portland Trail Blazers center Festus Ezeli announced that he was considering season-ending knee surgery back in December, we’ve had to live with the real—if not likely— possibility that Ezeli will not play during the 2016-17 NBA season. Speaking with Isaac Ropp on 1080 The Fan, Jason Quick of CSN NW speculated that the possibility may come to fruition. Quick also added that Ezeli has been unavailable to the media after “feeling a little burned” by an ESPN article that painted him as an unwelcome voice in a frustrated locker room.
Ropp: “Is Festus Ezeli going to play this year, or should we just write that off?”
Quick: “I don’t think he is, Isaac, but I’m hoping to sit down with him soon. I talked to him after last game; he said ‘I don’t want to do any media.’ He’s feeling a little burned, I think, so I’m hoping to find some time on this road trip and just kind of pick his brain on what’s going on, but it doesn’t sound like he is going to play this year.”
Ropp: “You mean burned by that Chris Haynes thing? The whole CJ ‘shut up’ deal?”
Quick: Yeah, and there’s some other stuff going on, too, that I’m not really ready to throw out there yet. I don’t want to burn that right now, but there’s other stuff going on behind the scenes too.
Whatever the extent of the issues, it would appear, by Quick’s telling of the situation, that something is not sitting well with the big man. Perhaps it will be uncovered in time. For now, expect Ezeli to sit as expected and play his cards close to the chest.
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