Todd MacCulloch - Pro Pinball Player

supastevefoo · Mar 23, 2009

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523744 · Mar 23, 2009

I think the most striking thing in that video is when they said that he earned $35 million during his playing career, which stopped at 28. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me

REEKO_HTOWN · Mar 23, 2009

523744 said:

I think the most striking thing in that video is when they said that he earned $35 million during his playing career, which stopped at 28. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me
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You got that right. who does he think he is Big Country Reeves

Asian Sensation · Mar 23, 2009

He looks like a big grizzly bear with a very friendly attitude. Nice to hear he's doing well. He played pretty well in his short stint in the NBA. Big body presence with soft touch and moved pretty well too.

Ziggy · Mar 23, 2009

1 down... Now tell me what Bryant Reeves is up to

nolimitnp · Mar 23, 2009

Wow. Do all NBA players get fat after retirement?

Asian Sensation · Mar 23, 2009

nolimitnp said:

Wow. Do all NBA players get fat after retirement?
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Yes. People tend to gain weight as they age but imagine how the body would react to not having to go through 2 a day's/ training/ playing 82+ games a season/ nonstop running, lifting, conditioning when you're so used to doing that pretty much your whole entire life before retirement. I'd say it's pretty normal. Unless you're Ethiopian like Reggie Miller.

iconoclastic · Mar 23, 2009

lol awesome party at MacCullough's

aghast · Mar 23, 2009

nolimitnp said:

Wow. Do all NBA players get fat after retirement?
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The ones that can no longer run because of career-ending degenerative nervous conditions, yes.

aghast · Mar 23, 2009

From the Post article from a few months back that likely inspired this piece:

There was a time not long ago when the New Jersey Nets made MacCulloch fabulously wealthy, bestowing upon him a contract that paid a guaranteed $34 million over six years -- an extravagant sum considering he always figured the NBA wouldn't have much use for a slow, awkward center from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Then as fast as it came, his career died. A year after he signed the deal with the Nets, the nerves in his feet began deceiving him, rendering him unable to run and jump. A year after that he was retired; young and rich with nothing to do. Many athletes in such predicaments struggle to find a meaning in their post-sports existence. They dabble at golf. They collect exotic cars. They shop for mansions.

MacCulloch bought pinball machines...
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IIRC, at the time, he played Shaq about as well as anyone else in the league (including Deke), and also had really nice touch/hands for a plodding center. He and Steve Nash were the Canadian national team. When he was forced into retirement by his nerve disorder, ESPN played it up; to my ears, they made it seem life-threatening. Glad to see he's still healthy, and at least somewhat ambulatory.

aghast · Mar 23, 2009

More, from same source as above (I half-remember a thread about this at the time):

That offseason New Jersey gave him the $34 million, Nets point guard Jason Kidd called him "by far the best center I've ever played with," and the following spring he went to the Finals again, played Shaq once more and held his own. A few months later, the 76ers, desperate to get MacCulloch back, traded Dikembe Mutombo to get him.

That's when his feet failed. They had bothered him for a few months, while he was in New Jersey, but MacCulloch figured it was something he could learn to play through. In the 76ers' training camp he had a uncomfortable sensation that his socks had dropped and balled up in the bottom of his shoes just under his arch, and yet when he pulled his shoe off, his socks were perfectly in place. Other times it felt as if his foot was on fire.

He finally had to admit to the 76ers that something was wrong. Eventually he received a diagnosis of bilateral neuropathy, which in effect means he has severe nerve damage to his feet, although doctors say they are not certain why. MacCulloch's symptoms weren't that severe, but they were strong enough to keep him from playing basketball. By age 28, he was retired.

"That was difficult," he said. "I kind of went through a depression for a while."

The hardest part was not knowing if he would get better. The nerves in his feet had spread so far apart they weren't transmitting information to the brain. Once he went to a physical therapist who took off his shoe and told him he had shards of glass stuck in his foot. A few days before he had stepped on a light bulb but had no idea that glass had lodged itself in the skin. At other times, he said, the nerves would try to cover the distance between them by "amping up to fire."

"Parts of my feet are so numb I don't feel anything," he said. "Other parts I feel too much. They're always irritated and buzzing and tingling. You don't know what causes it and you don't know how to make it go away. And it's constant. There's nowhere to run. There's nothing I can do. Being on my feet makes it worse and irritates it, and even if I sat with my feet up on an ottoman that nerve pain is still there. The pain is not a weight-bearing result. It can happen at rest, which is really frustrating."
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Todd MacCulloch - Pro Pinball Player

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REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

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