On July 28, local time, the agent of Australian center Aaron Baynes announced that the inside player, who has been away from basketball for a long time, will sign a contract with the Brisbane Bullets, a team in the Australian League NBL, and return to the field.
A few weeks ago, Baynes traveled to Las Vegas in the United States, where he tried out for several NBA teams, hoping that in this way, he would impress some NBA teams and thus get a chance to return to the NBA. In the end, however, no team threw an olive branch at him. Instead, Byrns decided to return to Australia first and start over from the NBL. Although he signed a 2-year contract with the Brisbane Bullets this time, Baynes added an extra clause to the contract that the Bullets would allow him to leave the team for the United States at any time when called by an NBA team.
From this summer's trial experience and the contract signed with the Bullets, it can be seen that Baynes, who is now 35 years old, still has not given up his NBA dream. Because if it wasn't for that accident a year ago, he would have had the opportunity to continue to play in the NBA. So after getting the chance to return to the basketball court, the NBA is still his ultimate goal.
So, what kind of accident cut off Baynes' path to the NBA? It all starts with the Tokyo Olympics.
It was a key battle in the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics, and Australia welcomed The European powerhouse Italy. The two sides with good strength play back and forth in the game. In the fourth quarter of the game, the situation was still glued, and Australian coach Brian Guljean looked at the bench, and he planned to send Baines back into the squad. But after looking back and forth twice, Guljan didn't even see Baynes. The big man, who scored 14 points efficiently in the first 14 minutes of the game, was very important to the Platooning of the Australian team, where did he go at such a critical juncture?
It turned out that the locker rooms and restrooms in the Tokyo Olympic basketball stadium were very far from the court, so Baynes told the team during the break between the third and fourth quarters that he was going back to the locker room to go to the toilet. Although Baines had to walk through the pitch, into the players' tunnels and a long walk up the stairs to get to the bathroom, there was no reason to spend so much time on him. So, a member of the Australian team hurried along the same route to find Baines.
Soon, outside the restroom in the team's locker room, the staff member found Baynes, but he was stunned by the scene in front of him. Baynes, who was 2.08 meters tall, was lying on the floor, his jersey was already stained red with blood, there was a large pool of blood on the floor, and two deep wounds on his forearm were still bleeding out. The staff member hurried to find the team doctor and the medical staff in the stadium, and Although Baynes was still conscious, he could not stand up on his own, saying that the only thing he remembered was that he was running toward the bathroom, and then suddenly fell, and then he remembered nothing.
Paramedics urgently treatEd Baynes, they search for possible causes of this. The two hooks on the wall to hang towels were eventually thought to be the "culprits" for Baynes' arm cuts, and he may have hit the ground with his head during the fall, causing symptoms of dizziness. The team's medical team rushed to put him on stretcher, and Baynes, who had regained some consciousness by this time, sent photos of his injuries to his agent in New York and asked about australia's match against Italy.
Then he realized that he hadn't gone to the bathroom before he fell. So he got up from the stretcher and prepared to go to the bathroom again, but as soon as his feet touched the ground, he fell heavily on the floor again. Before that, everyone present, including Baynes himself, did not realize that he had lost the ability to walk. Fear took hold of Baynes's brain for the first time, and some bad past experiences emerged.
"My uncle Don had an accident 10 years ago and he was quadriplegic," Baines said, "so all my family has seen this kind of person suddenly fall." So I was really frightened. ”
Before the incident of the washroom slip, Baynes had already had a heart-wrenching accident in the first game of the team's group stage against Nigeria. It was before the start of the second half against Nigeria that Baynes and his teammates returned to the field to warm up. His hands were still a little slippery because they had just been sprayed with disinfectant, which caused his fingers to slip away from the basket and his body immediately lost balance when he made a dunk. He fell directly to the floor, his head and neck hitting the ground first.
The scene frightened everyone in the Australian team, and although Baynes immediately stood up, for safety reasons, Baynes was always pressed on the bench by the coach in the second half of that game. "We don't know if the fall had any effects, and the neurologists can't give a definitive answer, but I've always had pain after that fall," Baynes said. ”
Just three days after that fall, Baynes suffered a more serious accident in the bathroom, and no one could be sure whether there was a connection between the two accidents. However, the two head impacts before and after made Baynes' physical condition even less optimistic. His legs began to tingle, and his left hand and arm could not move. "(After the fall) for almost half an hour, my condition really started to get worse," Baines recalled.
At this point, Australia's match against Italy was over, and the teammates returned to the dressing room with the joy of victory, only to find that the strongest big man in the team was lying on a stretcher and could not move. "We were all on our way to the dressing room thinking about where Baynes had gone," Delavedova said, "and he was in a very bad situation." At first, our question was: 'Can he still play the next game?' But then our question becomes: 'Will his body recover?' ’”
Soon, the ambulance drove to the venue and Baynes was admitted to the hospital. Mr. MRI revealed that he had suffered bleeding from his body, which in turn had crushed his spinal nerves, causing numbness and pain in his body. Because Japan was implementing an epidemic isolation policy at that time, no member of the Australian men's basketball team could enter the hospital to accompany Baynes, and Baynes, who did not speak the language, could not communicate well with the medical staff of the hospital.
"He first sent me a picture of a wound on his arm and said the doctor was examining him. The next piece of news was that he was already lying in a hospital bed, and there was panic in his words," said Moldovan, Baynes's agent, "and no one could give us more information, and we tried to find various sources of information while trying to comfort his wife In Australia, Richel." I wanted to buy the nearest flight to fly over, but at that point in time, I couldn't get into Japan. ”
Baines in the hospital was equally helpless. His ward was so small that he could reach the walls on both sides of the ward with his arms outstretched, and the length of the bed was not long enough for him or even his legs, and the nurse had to attach another bed at the end of his bed. Baynes, on the other hand, struggled to communicate with doctors about his situation through the translation software on his phone. The doctor told him that in the current situation he needed surgery to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord.
"I was still hoping I could catch up with the next game of the team," Baynes said of his wife in the hospital, who said his idea, "and the doctors in Japan think I have this idea, absolutely crazy." Even if I look back now, I still can't believe what happened. ”
At 2 a.m. local time, Baynes spoke on the phone with an Australian neurosurgeon who had seen and treated in the past. His advice to Baines was that physical therapy could effectively reduce physical pain without surgery, so that he could also be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible and return to Australia for further treatment.
The call gave Baynes and his agent confidence, giving them a goal and direction. For the next two weeks, Baynes focused on recovering, with the primary goal of standing up on his own. Because the hospital told him that he could only get on his own feet, he could fly from Tokyo to Brisbane, Australia.
Although I have had a lot of experience in combat with injuries in my career, that time was different. "I really couldn't cope, I felt like my body was on fire and stabbed by a knife," Baines said, "I needed to keep taking painkillers, but the pain would come back quickly, continuously, and even the nurses were sympathetic to my condition." ”
Ten days after the accident, the Australian men's basketball team defeated Serbia in the third place battle to win the Olympic bronze medal. When the award ceremony was held, Baynes could only be alone in the hospital room, enduring physical pain while watching the TV broadcast. When he heard his name being called out, he felt a moment of inner relaxation.
On the day after the award ceremony, the hospital allowed team doctors on the Australian team, as well as Baynes' teammates Delavedova and Sobi, to visit Baynes, but only for 15 minutes. Naturally, the two teammates did not forget to bring him the bronze medal that belonged to Baynes. "It was really a visit full of emotions," DelaVertova recalled, "it was a long journey for each of us, and he was an important part of our journey." When we saw him, we all burst into tears. I didn't want to get any trouble with the local Japanese officials, but we were all very happy to go in and see him. ”
On his 11th day in the hospital, Baynes was finally able to stand up. He then began to train his mobility, starting with stacking paper cups. The simplest action also brought him a great sense of satisfaction. He also video-chatted with his wife that day, and When he saw his 6-month-old daughter on his phone screen, Baynes couldn't control his tears anymore.
He wanted to go home too much, and the journey home was just as bumpy. To ensure his physical safety, a special medical plane was responsible for taking him back to Australia, where Baynes remained in an anesthetized state throughout the 8-hour voyage, securely securely in a reclining seat. Upon arriving in Brisbane, he was taken directly to the hospital by ambulance. Because Australia was also implementing the quarantine policy at the time, Baynes spent another two weeks in the hospital.
But this time, Baynes was able to see his family, which gave him great comfort. And his recovery process has also entered the fast lane, from the initial wheelchair can only move, and then walk on his own strength, Baynes gradually regained control of his body, and slowly restored the coordination of the body. After a few months, he finally ran again and was able to pick up the basketball and throw a few balls.
In the process of accidental injuries and recuperation, he has always narrowed the scope of those in the know as much as possible. Only when a former teammate or coach gets in touch with him by email or phone, he will say a few words lightly. With the gradual recovery of his body, the fire of basketball in his heart burned again, and the idea of returning to the NBA also emerged.
"I think NBA games look more fun now," Baines said of the relaxed blow-off scale of NBA referees over the past season, "I've always played that way since I was a kid, and I really want to go back and play now." This kind of thinking happens every day, and I hope to be able to get back to everyone. I don't know what the road ahead holds, but I will spare no effort to move forward. ”