The Boomers, the Australian Olympic team, were in a tight game against Italy at the start of the fourth quarter. The Aussies had advanced to the medal round with a finishing kick. The coach looked down at the bench to put his center into the game.
The big man had been playing well, he had 14 points in 14 minutes and nailed a couple 3-pointers. He was needed on the inside to fight Nicolo Melli and other NBA players. He was nowhere to be found.
Where was Aron Baynes?
Baynes went to the bathroom at the Saitama Super Arena between the third and fourth quarter. He had to go across the court, down the hallway and up the stairs. It didn't make sense. Baynes left running so he wouldn't miss the start of the final frame.
One of the staff members went to look for him, tracing Baynes steps. The staffer found him. Baynes was sprawled on the floor with blood on his uniform and on the floor from two puncture wounds in his arm in the locker room.
The doctor was summoned. Then paramedics. Baynes was still on the floor and couldn't get up. He ran around a corner to get to the bathroom.
Nothing after that.
An investigation began. The hooks on the wall looked like they could have caused the cuts. Baynes might have hit his head on the ground. He was on the stretcher and texting photos of his wounds to his agent in New York, who was watching the Boomers lose to the Italians.
He got up off the stretcher because he hadn't used the bathroom.
He fell to the floor.
Baynes lost his ability to walk in the confusion of the moment. He was headed for a nightmare that would derail his basketball career and leave him isolated in a Japanese hospital, with the possibility that he might be paralyzed.
Baynes spoke for the first time about the most traumatic time in his life, when he was in the hospital and out of consciousness.
10 years ago, my uncle Don had an accident. He says that he is a quadriplegic. I was afraid.
Baynes played nine seasons in the NBA with five different teams. He won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs. He made over 40 million dollars. He signed a two-year, $14.3 million contract with the Toronto Raptors after a career year with the Phoenix Suns.
One of the most important moments of his career was happening in Japan. The greatest generation of Australian basketballers, including NBA players, were with Baynes as their country went for its first-ever Olympic medal. They had beaten Team USA the last two times they played, and there was a hope they could do it again.
Baynes came out to warm up for the second half against Nigeria after the first half of the Boomers game. With his hands still wet from hand sanitizer, he went up for the most basic of dunks in the layup line.
His fingers fell off the rim. He lost his balance and crashed to the court, landing on his head and neck. The second half was precautionary.
We don't know what happened. The neurologists cannot be certain of that cause. Baynes says that he was in a lot of pain after the fall.
Baynes fell in the bathroom for the second time in three days, and it wasn't clear if it was due to the effects of the first fall or just water on the floor.
"The loneliest time in my life was laying in that hospital, going in and out of consciousness, going over my life plan and my goals and just crying." Aron Baynes
Medics initially thought he had suffered a concussion when he was found in the locker room. His legs started to feel better as time went on. He realized he could not move his left hand or arm. Someone brought an empty water bottle to relieve himself. He could not go.
Baynes says that he started to get worse over about a half hour.
His teammates came back to the locker room to check on him. They were focused on the game. He was always the rugged type. Baynes was the toughest player on the team.
Dellavedova says they came into the locker room to find Baynesie in a bad way. At first, we wondered if he could play in the rest of the tournament.
Baynes was taken by ambulance to the hospital and put through an array of scans. He had internal bleeding that was putting pressure on his spine.
Baynes had a good relationship with the Japanese nurses and doctors. Tokyo was in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, so Baynes couldn't have anyone from the team with him.
He sent me a picture of the holes in his arm and said the doctor was checking him out, but then he was in the hospital and his texts were panicked. We were trying to keep his wife updated in Australia. I wanted to take the next flight, but I couldn't get into Japan.
Baynes was put into a small room so small he could touch the walls with his hands if he had full movement of them. The nurses slid another bed sideways to prop up his feet because there wasn't enough room for him.
Baynes had a hard time using the translation app on his phone. Baynes needed surgery to relieve the pressure on his spine. He got on the phone with his family in Australia and tried to figure out what to do.
Baynes says he was still hoping to play in the next game and that the Japanese doctors thought he was crazy. Looking back, I can not believe what was happening.
He called an Australian neurosurgeon at 2 a.m. The doctor had a treatment plan in place to reduce the swelling so he could go home.
The Aussies put us at ease. We had a road map after we got a handle on it.
Baynes focused on doing what he had to do. He was told he could take the flight if he could stand. Even though he was not strong enough, he relied on therapists to help him with his limbs. The nerve pain was all over his body.
I couldn't cope. Baynes says that he was like a combination of burning, fire, knives. The nurses showed me kindness.
The Boomers won the bronze medal ten days after the accident. Baynes was alone and watching from his makeshift hospital bed in between doses of high-level pain medication when his teammates received the medals.
The nurses came to give him his medication as soon as the game was over because they didn't understand the ceremony. Baynes would stay awake to see the alarms on his phone.
Baynes' medal was brought to the hospital by Nathan Sobey and Dellavedova. He was better. He was getting stronger with therapy and the swelling on his spine had decreased. He was allowed to see the team doctor and athletic trainer for 15 minutes a day. Dellavedova and Sobey posed as doctors.
Dellavedova says it was an emotional visit and that he was a big part of the program. There were some tears. I don't want to get in trouble with the Japanese officials, but I'm glad we were able to get in there.
Delly got an online degree, Baynes jokes.
Baynes was in the hospital for 11 days. He was able to stack one cup on top of another, an accomplishment he had been working towards. He was so happy that he called his wife. He saw his youngest of three children, his six-month old daughter, learning to do the same. He began to cry.
It was very difficult to get home. A special plane was used for the flight. He would need to be strapped down on his back and anesthetized for the entire flight in order to be safe. He had to be taken to an ambulance because he couldn't walk. He had to go into a mandatory two-week quark in a local hospital, still unable to see his family, because of Australia's strict COVID-19 protocols.
The best time of the day for him was when he began physical therapy because the room had windows and his family could see him. He wanted to be strong enough to hug his wife and children when he got out of the hospital.
He spent a month in the hospital. He progressed from a wheelchair to walker to walking on his own, mostly due to weakness in his left leg, which was re-teaching his body how to move step by step.
He was finally able to run after a couple more months.
He was rewarded after a breakthrough on Wednesday. It had been a week without a fall. He picked up a basketball for the first time since August and threw in a few shots as part of his daily therapy.
He has kept silent about his condition, but he has been bombarded with texts, emails and calls from his former teammates. He likes to watch NBA games.
He has been going to the beach with his family. He hasn't been home in the summer in a long time.
He watched Dellavedova score 16 points for United in their win over the Bullets. Dozens of kids posed for photos with him. He was happy.
Baynes says that if you saw him now, you wouldn't know anything happened.
Baynes wants to return to the NBA next season, after he turned 35. He wants to do it for eight hours a day. We try to back him off but it is not in his nature.
The way NBA referees are calling games this year is one of the reasons why he wants to return to the league. His preferred style is being favored by more physical play.
It looks more fun now. Baynes says that he wants to get back to playing the game that he grew up playing.
I don't know what the path will look like, but I will give it a try.
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