Zach Edey spoke publicly for the first time since December, calling his injury-riddled sophomore season 'terrible' and outlining his offseason recovery plans.
Zach Edey called his injury-riddled sophomore season "terrible" Sunday and said the past several months have felt like wasted time, though the Memphis Grizzlies center stopped short of pessimism about his future.
"It's bad — it's terrible," Edey said before Memphis fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 142-126 at FedExForum. "You feel like you wasted a season a little bit. But it's all going to work out in the end."
It was Edey's first public session with reporters since December.
The No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 draft, Edey underwent an ankle procedure in June 2025 to address instability. He debuted in mid-November, played 11 games, and required a second ankle procedure for discomfort and a talar bone stress issue. A third procedure — an elbow cleanup — followed in March.
Edey said the elbow was not a new problem.
"I've had some problems with my elbow since middle school," he said. "I played through it for a while. I figured I might as well just get it cleaned up while I have this boot on my foot."
In 11 games, Edey averaged 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 25.8 minutes per game. Memphis went 7-4 in that stretch and transformed from one of the league's worst rebounding teams into one of its better ones.
Edey said the ankle discomfort crept up on him gradually during that November run.
"Every game it kind of got a little worse," he said. "My first few games, I didn't feel it at all. Then I may have pushed it too much — played too many minutes or whatever it was. Toward the end of that stretch, it started giving me problems."
Three procedures before his second NBA season is complete — a number that would have been hard to predict for a player who rarely missed time in four years at Purdue. He did not shy away from what that kind of injury history means for a 7-foot-3 center.
"That's always a concern," he said. "Everybody has that concern."
He said he plans to spend the offseason rehabbing in Memphis and will not participate in NBA Summer League or represent Team Canada in FIBA competition.
"I think the season showed me the player I could be, the player I want to be, and the player I should be in this league," Edey said. "It's just a matter of health. I've got to stay healthy and stay on the court."