What s up guys!
It s Jason here and welcome to my YouTube channel, the Basketball Insight!
At 1:00 P.M.
on March 17, 2021, Mark Cuban released a statement reading, "We are saddened to hear of Shawn's
accident.
Shawn has always been incredibly determined and has shown a fighting spirit.
We wish him nothing but the best in his recovery.
He will always be a part of our Mavs family."
Who is Shawn, and what happened to him?
The Shawn in Cuban's statement is Shawn Bradley, a former NBA journeyman who played center
for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, and Dallas Mavericks.
Stick around to hear the fantastic story of Shawn Bradley, the fifth tallest NBA player
of all time.
In this video, we talk about Shawn Bradley's early years, college ball career, his time
in the NBA, and the accident that changed the entire trajectory of his life.
This video charts the rise, fall and rise again of Shawn Bradley.
But before we begin, I need a quick favor from you.
If you wouldn t mind just hitting that LIKE button for the YouTube algorithm, I d appreciate
it.
As this is a brand-new channel I started, it helps me out a ton and it allows me to
continue to make great videos like this!
Thanks for doing that and now let us continue on with What Happened to Shawn Bradley and
What is the condition of Shawn Bradley today?
How it all Started - Shawn Bradley Growing Up
First, let's talk about Shawn Bradley's youth.
On March 22, 1972, Bradley was born in West Germany to his father Reiner and mother Teresa.
You could say that he was destined for the NBA because both his parents were giants.
Reiner was at an enormous 6 feet 8 inches, and Teresa was six feet tall.
Now you should know that Reiner and Teresa made a big baby indeed.
By the time he was fourteen, Shawn Bradley was a gangly 6 feet 8 inches tall.
Bradley would keep growing until he reached his final form an adult height of 7 feet 6
inches.
That's about one and a half velociraptors tall.
All right, so now you know that Bradley was a tall dude.
He was also really athletic.
Growing up in Castle Dale, Utah, he excelled at basketball, football, and baseball for
the Emery Spartans' high school team.
Here is something else that you should know about Bradley's rise.
He could ball out.
The dude was one of the best Utah high school basketball players of all time and had an
impressive stat line.
He led the Spartans to an unreal 68-4 record and two state championships during his time.
Bradley wasn't a scrub, and lots of colleges wanted him.
They coveted his giant frame.
Ultimately, Bradley chose Brigham Young University.
As a child, he had grown up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the
Mormon Church.
So it would make sense that he would attend BYU.
It was, after all, founded by Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon church,
loving husband of 55 wives, and doting father to 56 children.
Bradley had a monster freshman season leading his BYU team to the second round of the NCAA
tournament.
Bradley left the team at the end of the '90-'91 season.
Bradley and the Start of the NBA Dream
We've just talked about his steady rise from childhood to college.
Now we are going to transition to his time in the NBA.
When Bradley was 19, he took a sabbatical from BYU to serve as a full-time missionary
in Sydney, Australia.
After his mission ended in 1993, Bradley ditched BYU and entered the NBA draft.
If you thought that Bradley's height and athleticism intrigued some NBA scouts, then you would
be right!
Bradley's impressive first year of college and his 7 feet 6-inch frame seduced the Philadelphia
76ers into drafting him with the second pick of
the 1993 draft.
The 76ers got their 7'6" man and then issued him the jersey numbered you guessed it 76.
How much money did Shawn Bradley make?
One of the big questions people ask is always about money.
Overall, Bradley had a rocky NBA career.
Yes, he was tall, but he was also skinny, injury-prone, and inconsistent.
Bradley eventually settled into his role as a defensive specialist, never developing into
much of a scorer.
Although he never lived up to his top draft billing, he still made $69 million for his
twelve-year career.
Wow!
$69 million!
Unpredictable Biking Accident - What Happened to Shawn Bradley?
All right, so you know that Bradley had an OK NBA career and made a pretty nice chunk
of change.
Things were looking pretty OK for the big man.
After he retired from the NBA, he had a stint as an administrator in a school for at-risk
kids, narrowly lost a Utah House of Representatives election, and married his second wife, Carrie
Cannon, in 2017.
So when did Shawn Bradley get paralyzed?
Unfortunately for Bradley, an errant minivan would change his life forever in January of
2021.
To stay in shape after the NBA, Bradley took upcycling.
His enormous height forced him to commission a custom-made Trek Project One Bicycle.
The bike was 150% the height of a standard model.
Think about this, Bradley loved cycling so much that he had a couple of 100-mile rides
under his belt.
So it should have been no big deal on January 20 when he got on his bike to log some miles.
You would think he would be safe in his town, but you would be wrong.
An accident wrecked his life a small distance away from his home in St. George, Utah.
The details of the wreck might surprise you.
Bradley was riding his bike and spotted a parked vehicle on the shoulder in his path.
He tried to avoid the parked car.
As Bradley entered the street, a minivan attempted to pass him but nailed his back tire and slammed
him into the parked car.
His momentum flung his big body over the handlebars, and he landed headfirst on the asphalt.
His helmet cracked, and the impact paralyzed him.
The minivan's driver, 30-year-old Audriana Karsky, left the scene but later returned
to the accident after some time.
You might be interested to know police never brought charges against Karksy.
Karsky and Bradley's fateful rendezvous caused a test for Bradley.
Is Shawn Bradley paralyzed from the neck down?
You might be asking how messed up was Bradley?
And the answer is very--he was very messed up.
An MRI showed that two vertebrae in his neck had moved and pinched his spinal cord.
His doctor saw the damaged spinal and fused vertebrae about a month later and diagnosed
Bradley as a C6 quadriplegic.
You are wondering what it means to be a C6 quadriplegic.
A C6 injury refers to a spinal cord injury that damages the spinal cord near the base
of the neck.
Those injuries lose the feeling and function of everything from the top of the ribcage
down.
This spinal cord injury also affects the four limbs and makes them immobile and unfeeling.
That's a tough break for anyone; you have to admit.
One minute you're a giant athletic man, and in an instant, all that is lost, and you can't
feel anything below your ribcage.
The sad part is that Bradley's big body made the spinal cord injury even worse.
His body, at first a blessing, had become a curse and would drag him down to some pretty
dark places.
First, you have to know that spinal cord injuries mean a higher likelihood of dying.
People with this type of injury are in for a rough life and are at a higher risk for
heart disease, pneumonia, and a whole bevy of other medical maladies.
But don't forget, Bradley was 7 feet 6 inches tall.
His extreme height exacerbated the bad news of the spinal cord injury.
People as tall as he is usually live a shorter life because of the increased risk of heart
disease.
At this point, you can track Bradley's rise from being a tall kid to the NCAA and then
to the NBA.
His metaphorical fall came with an actual fall and spinal cord injury.
But his descent continued beyond that crash that robbed him of his mobility.
Let's transition into how Bradley has experienced lately to see how it can continually worsen
before getting better.
Being such a behemoth may have helped him in the NBA, but it makes Bradley's healthcare
a challenge.
Hospitals and doctors had to be creative with their processes and, at times, had to modify
their equipment to serve Bradley's needs.
If you have ever had to be a caretaker for someone, you know how much strain it can be
on your mental, emotional, and physical health.
That's what Bradley needed and needs full-time now.
And he feels how much of a burden his big frame causes.
That's relevant to Bradley because his wife has transitioned into the role of caregiver
for Bradley.
Somehow, she and a cadre of nurses move the mountainous man out of bed in the morning
and back to bed at night.
Have you ever felt like you were dragging people down?
That's not a good feeling, and it's one that stuck with Bradley.
At his lowest point, he even had thoughts about suicide saying, "Maybe it'd be better
if this was just all over."
I would personally have felt the same way.
He acknowledges the dark thoughts but has no plan to act on them.
The Rise and Fall and Rise Again
You can't help but think about his quality of life, though, right?
Bradley has a long road of grueling physical therapy ahead of him, but he remains optimistic.
His current goal is to pull himself from his wheelchair to bed and back without the need
for a caregiver.
Optimism is causing him to rebound from his injury, but so is his dedication to helping
others.
Bradley is a prominent driving force in teaching people about bike safety.
Another thing he is championing is mental health for caregivers.
His wife went from ordinary life to one filled with wheelchairs and diaper changes.
You would have to be a saint to stay, and she has been a steady presence in his life
by all accounts.
It does show you how seriously some people take their vows "in sickness and in health."
As you can see, Bradley's life has been a roller coaster of ups and downs.
I have a great deal of respect and admiration for this man.
His rise and fall and rise again are equal parts terrifying and inspiring.
On the one hand, it's nice to see someone who perseveres even in hardship.
On the other hand, it shows you how suddenly and profoundly life can change.
Try to imagine the pride he must have felt after being a high school, college, then a
professional NBA player.
You carry that knowledge and belief that you made millions with your athleticism.
Then on a clear, chilly, winter morning, all that knowledge and belief disappeared from
a minivan of all things.
Life can be ironically cruel, and it can bring down the best of us.
But Shawn Bradley keeps trucking along and persevering.
For Bradley, this is manageable he is after a multi-millionaire with enough resources
to cover his medical bills.
I am unsure if I could manage if something like this happened to me.
I don't have $5 million lying around for his treatment.
Are there any Shawn Bradley fans here?
How do you think he does it?
How does he keep going on with all that stacked against him?
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video.
There was a significant amount of research, and basketball watching that went into making
this video possible.
If you haven t seen already, check out my video on the Harley Davidson USA comeback
of 2022 or Is Kmart coming back in 2022?
Those are my personal favorites on my channel.
I highly recommend both.
As always, stay happy and healthy and stay tuned for another episode of Company Insight
next week.