Las Vegas --

Everybody in the Warriors' organization longs for the day when Festus Ezeli checks back into a game, but nobody shares that sentiment more than director of team services Eric Housen.

"I'm at the gym all of the time. They think I live there," said Ezeli, a 24-year-old center, who has a key card that allows him to access the Warriors' downtown Oakland training facility at all hours of the night. Housen "always jokes that he's getting tired of doing my laundry. He tells me that he's never done so much laundry in his life."

Ezeli's work ethic is a prized commodity, but it also might be the reason why he's unlikely to play in the summer league starting Friday night. Nearly 13 months after having surgery to reinforce the medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee, the big man is still being held out of game action.

The latest problem is right shin inflammation, which the Warriors don't believe to be serious and contend may have been brought on by overwork.

"My body is telling me something, but my mind doesn't know what 'overwork' is," Ezeli said after watching Thursday's practice and then going through noncontact drills. "I sat for so long that when they finally let me go, I just kind of went crazy."

Ezeli, who was a big part of changing the team's defensive culture as a 2012-13 rookie who started 41 games, knows exactly how long he sat. When he had the surgery, he thought the worst-case scenario would be a February return.

Before Game 7 of the Warriors' first-round series against the Clippers in May, Ezeli was still trying to convince the team that he was ready to get back on the floor. He walked into the gym and said, "Yo, I'm playing."

"They literally had to hold me back," he said. "You think I'm kidding."

He's now missed eight preseason games, 82 regular-season games and seven postseason games. When the Warriors' summer-league team plays its third game Monday, Ezeli will have missed 100 games.

"I'm stronger than I thought," Ezeli said. "Imagine sitting for 100 games. I never thought I could do it. ... It's just added to the fire. It's all motivation."

Ezeli's nostrils show the slightest flare when he talks about sitting for "precautionary reasons," but he seems to understand why the Warriors are being so careful with their big man of the future.

He's forced himself to find the positives in being sidelined.

He's noticing patterns in how opponents' offensive sets develop and how a defensive anchor can muck up those plays. He says he's worked on his passing, catching, shooting stroke and touch around the rim, and he can't wait to be unleashed to showcase the skills in a game.

"It's disappointing, but it's better to be safe than sorry," head coach Steve Kerr said. "You don't want to mess around with that. The biggest thing is for him to be ready to go in October. I feel bad for him, more than anything."
