Larry Sanders surprisingly retired from the NBA in 2015. The big man was viewed as one of the more talented centers in the league. However, health concerns and suspensions led to the Bucks’ center missing much of his five seasons in the league.
Since then, Sanders has been very open about his retirement. The 27-year-old has publicly spoken about his battles with anxiety and depression. He has also been outspoken about his passion to get into different fields outside of basketball. Now, he has also given his side of the story regarding the infamous nightclub brawl that was one of the final steps to Sanders walking away from the game (via Mike Pielluci of VICE Sports):
Only now, more than two years after the fact, will he share his version of events: He was jumped. He was speaking with a female friend underneath the club’s DJ booth when, from above, a group of men began to pour alcohol onto them.
“Like pouring alcohol directly on us, like where it was splashing,” he said. “I wanted to confront them, like, ‘Hey, what are you guys doing?’ It turned into a very physical bout. They grabbed me. ‘What are you doing up here?’ Guys started swinging. It got really physical.”
The security footage seems to bear that out. Sanders’ first appearance in the frame, beginning around the twenty-second mark, shows him stumbling down a ramp and then into a couch, with as many as three men pummeling him from behind.
In a video created by VICE, Sanders talks precisely about his passions. From growing up wanting to be an oceanographer, to his tattoos as a form of artistic expression, Larry has always had a calling for art. Since leaving the league, he has been able to realize that dream, creating a clothing line and an album and being a manager for various artists.
Despite Sanders finding his passion elsewhere, there is still the possibility of an NBA comeback. The big man has teased on Twitter about joining the Warriors or Cavaliers and there have been reports that multiple teams are interested in his services.
However, in order to go back to the NBA, Sanders needs the perfect situation. After all, the previous stint did not end well with depression and anxiety sapping the enjoyment out of his NBA career. What’s more, Sanders believes he was mistreated by the Bucks’ organization, specifically believing they neglected to inform him he was concussed:
But Sanders didn’t know how, not yet, and so he turned to marijuana to cope. At first he smoked to ward off the encroaching waves of anxiety. Then, three months after the nightclub fight, he fractured his orbital bone in a February 2014 game against the Houston Rockets. He chose not to take his doctor-prescribed painkillers, worrying that the pills could be addictive. Sanders is hardly the only athlete to endorse that line of thought, but the impetus had as much to do with his surroundings as his own research. He knew, after the brawl and the resulting injury, that the Bucks were scrutinizing their investment more than ever. Sanders believed they were more concerned with his being on the floor to justify his new contract than his overall well-being. He still believes he may have been concussed, but the team never tested him.
“They kind of let me go to sleep on the training table and sent me home and didn’t really think anything was wrong,” he said. “And then, the next day, I find out I blew out the orbital in my face. That kind of went into the box of why I had to get out of here, just for your health. I didn’t really feel safe with them—the league or Milwaukee—after that point.”
It would be another year before Milwaukee would buy him out of his contract, but his Bucks career fundamentally ended that night, when James Harden’s elbow crashed into his right eye. Sanders lived for those contested rebounds but after the injury he grew tentative.
The Bucks declined to comment to Vice and they probably have their own story to tell. But this is obviously a very serious thing to be accused of. The NBA’s concussion protocol has not been under as much scrutiny as other leagues, but there may need to be some reform. If Larry Sanders’ belief about the Bucks is correct, that is a huge indictment on the organization.
So Sanders may find it difficult to find another job in the NBA. Not only is he looking for the perfect situation, but the risk of marijuana-induced suspensions will scare many teams away. The center has maintained some level of conditioning, playing in some of the bigger summer tournaments, but his NBA career may never be reignited again.
Fortunately, that does not seem to bother Sanders who has found passions elsewhere and is working hard to achieve his goals.
