Former Indiana Pacers forward Antonio Davis had no idea what to do after his playing days ended.
So when he retired, he wanted to help peers with their plans when the basketball stopped bouncing. That's why he recently accepted a job as the head of the National Basketball Retired Players Association.
His goal is to assist players in post-retirement.
"It's my mission and vision to create a space for you to just not just safely transition out of the game of basketball but now start to find that next passion," Davis told Back In The Day Hoops On SI. "Like what are you going to do now? We start off by offering a number of services, whether it's career development, whether it's just straight what I call 360 (degrees) wellness, mental, physical, psychological health and I most importantly find your space."
Davis played 13 seasons, most notably with the Indiana Pacers in the 1990s. He played in two Eastern Conference finals, losing to the New York Knicks in 1994 and Chicago Bulls in 1998. After his career ended in 2006, he focused on life after basketball.
"It's so crazy a while back my mom, who worked 40-plus years at Kaiser," Davis said. "I remember talking to her about like, `Hey, what are you going to do now and what's going on?' As we were having this conversation, it just kept hitting me, `Man I was going through the same stuff.' The simplicity of it is you're doing one thing, like I played professionally almost 20 years and at the time that I had transitioned out, that was half my lifetime. I spent all these years practicing, playing games and having this life and then all of a sudden, it's gone. It's almost like I had to recreate my life ... If you take basketball away from me, then what am I?"'
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day Hoops On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com
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