Basketball news 2022: Aron Baynes opens up on the mental toll of his Tokyo

Baynes’ life was turned upside down last July when he slipped in the bathroom during the fourth quarter of Australia’s pool game against Italy.

He was knocked unconscious and sustained a serious spinal cord injury that ended his Olympic campaign and left him hospitalised in Japan and Australia for three months.

Baynes feared he may never walk again while he was forced to watch the Boomers’ historic bronze medal victory from a Tokyo hospital.

The big man has made a successful recovery and comeback via the Brisbane Bullets in the NBL this season, but the scars from the incident remain.

Baynes opened up to Bullets and Boomers teammate Nathan Sobey about the mental struggles he has experienced since the freakish fall.

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“I can tell you right now that it was terrible,” Baynes said on the NBL23: Unrivalled documentary, which will air on ESPN and Kayo on Friday.

“I was in a bad place with where I was.

“It was really tough for a number of other reasons mentally.

“We’d gone through some ups and down and highs and lows and it is still a challenge every single day.

“But it’s something that we know if we can get through that, we can get through anything else.”

Baynes revealed the hardest part was being removed from his loved ones as he sat helplessly in hospital.

“I didn’t think it was that bad and I thought everything was good, but laying in hospital and I knew all I wanted was that I had to see my family,” he said.

“It took me four weeks to see them, and I broke down multiple times. I just remember seeing them from the (Brisbane) hospital window for the first time because they couldn’t come in because of Covid isolation.

“I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t know that I’d ever get that low in my life, but I went to the point where I see what the most important thing in my life is (and that’s family).”

Baynes is now in a better place, and he is starting to feet his feet, and voice, in a talented Bullets side that has won three straight after starting the season 0-5.

“One of the keys for me that I learnt over the last 18 months is that I can’t not talk,” he said.

“That’s why coming into the (Brisbane) team, you just hear me talking constantly.

“Whether it is on the court or off the court.”

SHAQ LINKS WITH LARRY

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has joined forces with NBL owner Larry Kestelman via Reebok Australia, which could pave the way for ‘Shaq’ to link with the Australian league.

Kestelman recently secured the exclusive distribution rights for Reebok in Australia and New Zealand.

O’Neal is…