NBL22: Dane Pineau on the horrific pain he suffered from a prolapsed disc and how he has recovered
The agony that ruined Dane Pineau’s 2021 NBL season left him unable to even sit at the table for family Christmas. Here’s how he overcame the horror injury.
Dane Pineau’s back was in so much pain this time last year he couldn’t sit at the family table for Christmas lunch.
Instead, festivities for Pineau resorted to the South East Melbourne Phoenix big man being bedridden for over a month.
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“It was so frustrating,” Pineau reflected ahead of Saturday’s away clash against the Bullets in Brisbane.
“The fluid leaked out of my prolapse disc and it hit a nerve in my leg, so any time I moved my leg I would get these really sharp, shooting pains.
“I just had to lay down and when I tried to eat, I had to stand up because my back was hurting so badly when I was sitting.”
Pineau is now pain free, but it has taken him a mentally draining six months to reach this point.
He only played one game last season and required three-nerve root injections, a cortisone injection and two epidural injections to push through the pain.
Pineau says most normal people would have required surgery, but he was told to let his back naturally heal.
“That was the advice given to me by a couple of back surgeons and I trusted them,” he said.
“For someone playing an impact sport you want to let the back heal itself.
“It will be stronger, and it will mean that hopefully it doesn’t happen again going down the line.
“But I basically had to wait for my back to heal itself, so it was a really trying time.”
As a result, Pineau spent countless hours at home in bed.
He found it difficult to ignore the mental demons telling him his career was over, but he pushed through thanks to the support of his family and teammates.
“It’s why I never thought I wasn’t going to come back,” the 27-year-old said.
“I’m still pretty young, but there were definitely times when my return felt a long way away.
“Sleeping was also really hard for me because I just couldn’t get comfortable.
“It was really hard, and I lost a lot of strength. The lack of sleep and being able to move around like I wanted, I was really frustrated all the time.
“But it was nice that I had some really kind family members around. My mum and dad and my friends all really looked after me to help keep me sane.
“It was a struggle managing it all.”
📠@DanePineau joined SEN Mornings last week to talk on coming back from injury last season and the new imports.
— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) December 26, 2021
Pineau’s mental battles continued when he started his rehabilitation.
He hadn’t exercised for six months, so even basics like putting one foot ahead of the other felt like a mission.
“I remember one day I was running in a straight line, but I wasn’t running properly,” he said.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘how long is it going to be until I can actually play again?.”
Thankfully, Pineau is now fit, and on the road to making a full recovery.
He feels indebted to the Phoenix for their patience and faith through the hardest injury of his young career to date.
“There was never any pressure on me to come back and they just kept telling me to get the back right,” he said.
“I had a physio that would come around to my house every couple of days and that was amazing.
“I hope that I can repay the favour to the club by getting better and contributing as much as I can.
“It’s really nice and I’m starting to feel a little bit more comfortable on the floor and just playing.
“Put it this way, my general everyday life is a lot better than it was at this time last year.
How fitness freak Creek became one of NBL’s best shooters
—Michael Randall
South East Melbourne Phoenix might be loaded with talent this season, but it’s the club’s two biggest guns who have become basketball’s odd couple.
The country boy from Horsham in Victoria’s Wimmera region Mitch Creek and Zhou Qi, of Henan Province — known as a ‘birthplace’ of Chinese civilisation — have hit it off since the latter arrived at the Phoenix in November.
Mitch calls his giant mate “King Chee” and the pair will often be seated next to each other on the bench when they take a rest from games, engaged in conversation.
“We talk about everything, mate, big King Qi and I have spent a lot of time around each other now,” Creek said.
“He’s hilarious. He’s real witty and funny, quick on his comebacks, one of the sharpest tools in the shed.
“We talk s**t, we joke, we hang it on each other, we go and eat a lot of meals together and laugh a lot.”
This is no Danny De Vito-Arnold Schwarzenegger Twins pairing, though, when the whips are cracking, it gets serious.
“When the game’s on the line, we’re talking to each other about what we need to do for each other to help the rest of the team around us to be great.
“In order for him to be successful, he has to know that we trust him, so I try to make sure our relationship on the court, as well as off the court, is very fruitful and very fun, but also very competitive.
“We’re just trying to get the best out of each other.”
Both men have had a taste of the NBA, Creek with Brooklyn and Minnesota and Qi with Houston but, while the Chinese national team member is a key to the Phoenix NBL title hopes, the Aussie wants to see his mate back in the big league.
“He’s a very good man and hopefully he’s not here for long — I hope he gets back to the NBA very soon.”
More like ‘Ripped’ Creek
The Hawks will have to contend with a Creek who says he is the fittest he has ever been, thanks to an intensive off-season regimen he undertook under the eye of Danny Kennedy Fitness.
Improvement in body, mind and the game has become an obsession for the 29-year-old as he searches for ways to “redefine strength and conditioning and use it in basketball”.
“I would say I’m probably in the best shape of my career,” he said.
“I haven’t peaked too early. Physically, I’m very fit and very strong, and, mentally, I’m in a really good spot.
“Being fresh of mind and fresh of body, it allows me to play good basketball.”
For the very best in the NBL, “Saturday night lights” is a myth — it’s about “the work you do in the dark”.
“It’s just a s**tload of work people don’t want to do,” he said.
“It’s running in the dark, late nights, early mornings, in the gym working on stuff, watching film, getting better — 6am gym sessions four-five days a week in the off-season, even now, lifting three-four days a week before training.
“At the same time, I’ve had a very good balance. I’ve been able to have a social life, eat, have a few beers with my friends and relax with family but, at the same time, I know I’ve put in a big body of work to get where I am.”
Shoot your shot, Mitch
If you watched defenders sag off Creek and dare him to shoot the three while he was in Adelaide, you’d never have thought he’d one day be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of sharpshooters Cotton, Harvey and Blanchfield.
But his devotion to getting better has paid off in spades, with Creek leading the league in three-point percentage at a gaudy 56.5 per cent.
Before this season, Creek had never taken more than 3.2 three per game, but he has upped that to 5.8 so far this season — volume shooting areas.
Not that he cares or looks at the stats.
“I don’t know my percentages, I don’t really care,” Creek said.
“If you come down and watch me at training, mate, I’m shooting a very good clip, I’m putting in a lot of work.
“If I’m open and it’s a good shot, and my team needs me to shoot it, I’m definitely going to launch it. If they go in, awesome, if not, then I’m still going to shoot them because I believe that I’m a bloody good shooter.”
Keeping it simple works for Creek.
“I don’t try to reinvent the wheel, I don’t try to shoot Bryce Cotton crossover step back four-point plays, that’s not who I am,’ he said.
“I just do the little things and I try to do them well and I think simple basketball can really be super effective.”
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