[On August 18, 1991, I announced my retirent from the Boston Celtics.]
It was one of the happiest days of my life.
You must understand how bad my back condition was at that ti.
For nearly 10 years, back problems had plagued , and I couldn’t take it anymore.
The pain was incessant, no matter what I did—standing, sitting, lying down, leaning forward—I couldn’t get rid of it; it completely dominated my life.
So days, I couldn’t even bend down to pick up a ball, let alone shoot.
So nights, I had to eat lying on the floor.
Even picking up my son Connor was excruciating.
The pain made it impossible for to play as I wished, and I loathed myself at that ti.
I don’t know how my wife endured it with for so many years; I myself found it incredible.
Perhaps that’s why when I finally stood at the podium and loudly declared that it was all over, I felt a trendous weight lifted off my shoulders.
When I no longer had to force myself to endure all that pain, I felt a huge sense of relief.
Honestly, at that point, I hated basketball.
Right after the press conference ended, I went out to celebrate with so close friends, including my physiotherapist Dan Drake.
There was nothing to be sad or sentintal about, it was ti for to end it.
In the months before the conference, I knew I was not far from retirent.
At the end of the 1990-1991 season, when my back began to act up, I knew I was done.
But it wasn’t until July 1991 that I truly admitted to myself that I could no longer play.
I wasn’t afraid of life after basketball; basketball had been everything, but the pain was exhausting.
I had nerve compression, my L4 vertebra was twisted onto my L5, pinching a nerve in between.
This made my spine highly unstable, the bones continually pressing on the nerves in my back, it felt terrible.
Dan Drake would treat , he could temporarily move the bones off the nerve, but soon after, a burning pain would spread down my legs, and I would be in trouble again.
Dan had been treating for nearly 10 years, he was very worried that this compression could cause permanent damage to .
We had many serious discussions about retirent, starting after a major injury in 1989, I felt like every ga could be my last.
In the sumr of 1990, the team made a big trade, we sent away the promising Reggie Lewis for Divac and Hornacek, who were very much in sync with our team.
During the early part of the 1991 season, we played exceptionally well, we were at one point leading the league, everyone felt that the Celtics were back.
Only I knew, we were actually quite vulnerable, from spirit to body, we were excellent, but it was hard to win the championship.
In the sumr of 1991, I underwent back surgery hoping to completely eliminate the nerve pain caused by vertebral compression.
During that year’s playoffs, my physical condition was very poor, severe burning sensation in my legs, I couldn’t feel my toes.
I couldn’t sit or stand, I was truly frightened.
I managed to finish the fifth ga at the Garden Arena, a deciding match against the Pacers.
I felt terrible before the ga started, but after Dan treated , my adrenaline surged, and I could completely forget the bad sensations.
I knew I would pay for it later, but that was for later.
We defeated the Pacers in that fifth ga and won the series.
During the ga, I was chasing a loose ball and hit the parquet floor hard, dizzy and blurred vision.
Honestly, I don’t rember much of it, by the ti they took to the locker room, I was sowhat out of it.
Team doctor Ani Sheler was closely monitoring my condition in the locker room.
When my head started to clear a bit, I said to him, "Can I shoot? Can I get back on the court?"
He said, "Hey, you’ve done enough. Just rest."
But I kept hearing the calls of the crowd, they were chanting, "Larry! Larry! Larry!"
I looked at Ani and said, "Damn it!"
So I stood up, ran down the tunnel, and back onto the court, the entire arena went wild.
Later, when I was hired by the Pacers, Donnie Walsh said he knew I would play, knew I would co back, the entire arena would go crazy, and then we would win the ga, which is exactly what happened.
Even so, we couldn’t maintain the montum, and we ultimately lost in the semifinals to the Detroit team.
Then, I underwent my first back surgery and began contemplating retirent.
The surgery involved removing the disk and widening the canal for the spinal nerve.
On the day of the surgery, I walked 10 miles outside.
My surgeon was very optimistic, he said, "You should co back in January, I’ll check again, but I think you’ll be fine."
But I told the doctor, "I might never co back, whether I recover well or not."
I seriously discussed retirent with the team’s new operation manager, Dave Gavitt.
Dave joined the Celtics in 1990, he advised not to retire.
We hit it off from the start, Dave had many innovative ideas on how to help the team, I enjoyed discussing basketball with him.
He led Providence College to so very good results in the 70s, he understands how players view the ga and he knows what kind of team can succeed.
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