Teisha Hyman needed a minute. Fifteen seconds is what she usually allowed herself to catch her breath any time she hit the hardwood floor, but she was down for longer, not able to get onto her feet after the referee blew their whistle to stop play.
Hyman walked onto the court despite some soreness in her left knee during warmups, needing just one basket to hit the 2,000-point mark on her mom’s birthday. But when Hyman prepared for the mark-tying shot three minutes into the game, her knees buckled and her ACL tore.
“I knew something was wrong,” Hyman said. “I jump-stopped and both of my legs just got stuck.”
Almost two years later at Syracuse, Hyman felt the same pain, the same feeling against NC State — this time she could tell the severity, an ACL tear on her other knee, before she even hit the floor. Hyman said that her most recent injury has been more of a “mental journey” than a physical one. After two knee injuries, Hyman doesn’t want to be just a force on the court, but a “voice” on a team that is only returning three players from last season.
After tearing her left ACL in 2018, Hyman thought her basketball career could potentially be over. To improve her physical health, she immediately went into rehab for a month and a half before her surgery, getting cleared to fully play six months after.
But the physical toll was nothing compared to the mental one, Hyman said. Woodlands High School (New York) Athletic Director Michael McCoy said the yearlong process was a “strain” on Hyman, yet she still continued her pursuit for a Division I basketball career — a dream she’s held since sixth grade.
“As a teenager, you don’t think about the big picture, but she did,” McCoy said. “She knew she had a future coming.”
But Hyman said her motivation took a hit during the rehab process since she was unable to help the team that she was a leading contributor on. She lost her “drive,” something she still feels after sustaining her injury at SU.
“My drive is just different,” Hyman said. “I don’t have the same determination as I used to because sometimes I just get tired of hurting and (I) call it a day.”
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Craig Cypher, a clinical and sport psychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said research shows athletes face two main hurdles when returning from major injuries: the start of the rehab process after the initial impact of the injury and the preparation for returning to play. The latter entails the mental process, which Cypher said makes some athletes like Hyman scared about the lasting effects of the injury. “Athletes face anxiety about returning,” Cypher said. “Can they trust that they are healed? Have they prepared their body through rehab and workouts? Are they ready for the high impact of their sport: cutting, moving, contact?”
Sports are an outlet for stress in multiple ways for athletes, giving them physical, social and creative means to express themselves, Cypher said. Without sports during the rehab process, athletes have to find other “engaging activities” to take up their time — like Hyman’s adoration for video games.
“A key challenge is developing other positive and prosocial outlets that can be engaging and give them meaning as they work through the loss of not having their sport,” Cypher said.
Hyman said her mother, Angela, was a big asset throughout her entire “mental journey.” Angela would check in to see how Hyman was doing, making her talk about what was bothering her and keeping her mind on positivity.
She spent a year off the court doing homework and hanging out with her teammates, cycling through video games with other friends playing Call of Duty: Warzone, Minecraft and NBA 2K — only the game mode MyPlayer to work on an individual character’s abilities. She finished rehab right before the season, ready to go back out on the court in the opening game with another chance at the 2,000-point record.
McCoy said he extended the possibility for Hyman to sit out the first few games at an away tournament in order to pass the achievement in front of her family and friends, but she declined. Hyman wanted to get back on the court with her teammates as fast as possible, and she had an exact idea of how she was going to reach the historic landmark.“I asked what her dream scenario was,” McCoy said. “She said, ‘I’m going to get the opening tip and hit a 3 right inside of half court.’”
Right after the tipoff, in the first game of the season, Hyman did exactly that. Less than a year after she tore her left ACL, Hyman scored the opening 3 of the game, adding on another 27 points to not just pass the 2,000-point mark, but break Woodlands’ all-time scoring record.
Hyman brought that quick shooting ability to SU, working herself into the starting rotation during her freshman season — she started once against Boston College. Toward the end of the season against NC State, she hit another 3 in the first half, then took the opportunity to drive to the basket in the second half. But she extended too far with her right leg. Her right knee brushed the defender in front of her, in the process eliminating any balance Hyman had.
“Before I hit the floor, I knew,” Hyman said.
Hyman was sidelined for the remainder of the year with another ACL tear, this time in her right knee, after leading all Syracuse freshmen in scoring throughout the 2019-20 season. She wouldn’t play in the following season either, as former head coach Quentin Hillsman decided not to play Hyman so she could properly finish her rehab.
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Cypher describes the injury process to athletes as “pulling back their armor,” and a second injury being an arrow that hits after the shield has already been stripped away. He said that the “internal emotional resources” for those athletes get depleted during the second injury, causing it to have a more significant impact.
“The athlete knows what the process will entail, but it can come with even more anxiety, sadness and loss when going through a second disappointing and disheartening injury,” Cypher said.
Hyman struggled with the mental effect of her second injury, having to go through rehab in central New York. She said it was a “different” process compared to high school. For Hyman, video games provided all the entertainment she needed to get through another year of rehab.
Even though she’s fully recovered now, Hyman said that she still feels the repercussions from her injury, a trend Cypher said is extremely common. During practices this offseason, she needed to take some reps off or simply sit down to rest her knees.
“Nothing happens, it just hurts,” Hyman said. “It’s just very inconsistent, day-by-day.”
When her knees allow her to reach full speed, Hyman has been able to return to the “quiet assassin” she prides herself on being. But she’s also added some “talk” to her game in order to hype her teammates up during scrimmages and drills in practice, calling herself the “starter” of the entire team’s energy.
Hyman also gets into it with Eboni Walker, a transfer from Arizona State University. Hyman’s trash talk doesn’t just help teammates like Walker better their abilities, it specifically “hypes (herself) up,” eliminating the waning confidence she’s had because of her two injuries.
“I want to be healthy and play, that’s every athlete,” Hyman said. “I just had to be patient and let life take its course.”
Published on November 7, 2021 at 11:51 pm
Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu
