PHOTO/Randy Renner
You could see the joy on Andre Roberson's face and hear the happiness in his voice, he was finally back practicing at full speed with his Thunder teammates.
Finally. After a year and a half of recovery, rehab, disappointment and more rehab. Finally he was back out on the floor.
"Oh I feel great man, a lot of emotions," he said when asked how things went on the first day of practice.
"It just felt good to be back out on the court. I pretty much did everything. Just took a couple reps off here and there to manage things and see how I feel and go from there. But it felt great."
Roberson says his knee is fine and he has no hesitation about doing anything he needs to do. Mostly now it's about getting back into basketball shape and getting used to the speed of the game again.
"As of right now I have no restrictions, I'm full go," and he wants to get back into a game as soon as he can. "That's always been on my mind, that's always been a part of my process and I'm hoping to play in the first game, the first preseason game."
That would be next week in Tulsa against the Dallas Mavericks. A date, October 8th, he can see and circle on a calendar. Seeing something as clearly as that now was difficult at times through the darkness of a lengthy rehab that lasted longer than many thought it would.
"Everybody's rehab process is different, everybody has their own timetable. I knew eventually it would all be behind me but obviously through the dark days it's hard to see where you'll end up. You always second guess yourself here and there but you gotta just keep the faith and keep that hope alive."
You can hear all of Andre Roberson's interview session in the block below. Plus Billy Donovan talked about Dre's return during his session with the media and Chris Paul also spoke to reporters those interviews are also below.