My memories of Z aren't even game related. It's just my perception of Z as probably the one player I look at, as having given more of themselves just to get back out on the court again, than any other player I've ever been around in my life.
People that watch Z play today, really don't appreciate what skill level, and athletic ability he brought to the game before all the foot issues.
He was a 7'3 highly athletic center, with excellent ball skills, and a soft shooting touch. If Z didn't have all the foot issues that he did, he would have gone down as one of the greatest centers of all time. He was robbed of virtually all of his mobility, which was one of his greatest strengths.
If Z had the makeup of the normal human ...he never would have played NBA basketball again after the great number of surgical failures that littered his career early on.
He was a kid that at certain times in his life had spent 35% of his life on crutches. People remember all his issues as a Cavalier, but don't even know about all the issues he dealt with as a child, and having to go through never ending pain, not only with his feet but legs as well.
The degree of pain that he lives with on a day to day basis, and will continue for the rest of his life ..is something only he truly knows about and we can only imagine. But, Z has his feet in buckets of ice after every single game. Even when he gets back to his room or home after each game.
He deals with issues where the pain is so intense it's robbed him of nights upon nights of sleep.
Nobody realizes that on many a road trip, where accomodations aren't readily available to help him ...he may go successions of days and nights with no sleep at all, and still suit up and play to the best of his abilities every night, without complaint.
For this man to have lasted as many years as he has, and given as much as he has given to this franchise is unequalled by any other athlete that I've ever been associated with in my lifetime.
His personal sacrifices for this franchise will never be equalled.
Long after his playing days are over, he will continue to endure the aches and pains that are the result of doing whatever it took to get out on the court and play the game.
The thing that really is the measure if this man, that just really reflects what he is about is ...he was a very rich man very early on in life. He had the huge contract, and more money than he'd ever spend in his lifetime when the foot issues piled up on him in his early 20's.
He had the longterm contract worth over 100 mil. He didn't HAVE to put himself through all this, and could have lived the life that he leads today whether he ever suited up and played ever again or not.
But, he's not built that way.
He felt a debt of gratitude to this organization that you never ever find in today's athletes. He did whatever it took, and has lived a life of endless pain because of his love for, and gratitude to this franchise.
Not only did he go on to be one of the top players in our history as a franchise, but ... to me ...when his number gets risen up high into the rafters at the Q, it should stand higher and taller than all others.
Not as a measure of the level of player that he was and is ...but, of having and exhibiting the greatest strength of character, courage, tenacity, and perseverance of any athlete I've ever come in contact with in my life.
In those aspects, he's the greatest of all time, in my book.