Nets’ Dariq Whitehead finally healthy at summer league after lengthy injury battle

LAS VEGAS — Wins and losses in summer league don’t count for much.

But don’t try to tell Brooklyn’s Dariq Whitehead that summer league doesn’t matter.

Not after it’s taken him 1 ½ years, three surgeries and countless hours of rehab to get to this point.

Not after all the work he’s put in to finally be healthy for the first time since high school, when he was the top scholastic prospect in the country.

For Whitehead — plagued by injury in his lone year at Duke and a rookie campaign with the Nets that saw him limited to just two NBA cameos — being fit for the Las Vegas Summer League opener Friday against Indiana is everything.

“For me, I’d say it’s exciting. Not being able to go out there and play how I needed to play in the year-and-a-half and finally being able to do so, it’s exciting for me,” Whitehead said. “I’m excited for [Friday], to go out there and be able to just play hard. I feel like in the past year-and-a-half, any time I played, I was coasting.

“I feel like [Friday] there’s opportunity for me to go out there and play hard and let the game be what it’s going to be. I feel like that’s going to lead to me eventually just having a great game if I go out there and just control what I can control. So that’s more so where I’m at with the mindset, just go out there, play hard, get used to playing game speed again and control what I can control.”

Whitehead, raised in Newark, led Montverde Academy to consecutive national titles.

In 2022 he swept the Naismith, Gatorade and Sports Illustrated Player of the Year Awards, and was the country’s top recruit per Rivals.

But injuries have gotten in the way.

“He hasn’t played in two years on a consistent basis, so I think we have to temper that a little bit,” GM Sean Marks said. “But at the same time, I know the young man is itching to get out there and play and get back to form.”

Whitehead had foot surgery in August 2022, then another operation before the draft, and — following shin splints — saw his rookie season cut short after just six games (four in the G-League) by a frustrating third procedure.

“That’s a great word: frustration,” Whitehead said. “When you’re coming out of college, you have a surgery and then you work from that to try to get back, and then you have a shin surgery, that was the toughest part for me, just having to do those constant rehabs. And that was the most frustrating part.

“But once you get into the rehab process and you start to go through it, the only thing you have in your mind is just, let’s come out of this better and let’s make sure we’re better than when we came in. That was just my whole mindset, making sure I came out of the second rehab process better than I was the first time I went in.”

So far, Whitehead has shown signs of that.

The Nets had six practices, and coach Steve Hetzel cited Whitehead as among the standouts entering Friday’s opener.

And health has been the key.

“The fact that he’s on the court, playing as hard as he can and feeling comfortable is the first step to him becoming the player he should be for whatever career he’s going to have,” Hetzel said. “But that’s the goal for us, that he plays as hard as he can, plays free, enjoys being on the court. And he’s done that in camp, so we’re all very pleased with what Dariq has done so far.

“Everything that I’ve seen from him has been very, very positive.”

Now Whitehead has to keep that up, practice after practice, and string games together without getting ground down by the physicality.

“That was a big problem for me last time in the G, being able to maintain that physicality and still get up and down the court,” Whitehead said. “I feel like I’m doing a much better job of that this time. … Throughout the couple practices we had, I’m further along with just being physically able to maintain running up and down the court and being able to stay physical with other guys.”