Aron Baynes returns to basketball after horrific injury / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: AP - Scanpix Credit AP - Scanpix

After suffering a horrific spinal cord injury last summer during the Tokyo Olympics, Aron Baynes is now ready to return to basketball.

Aron Baynes

Position:CAge:35Height:208 cmWeight:123 kgBirth place:AustraliaProfileNewsStatistics

According to Brian Windhorst from ESPN, the Australian center will hold workouts for NBA Summer League teams in Las Vegas on Friday, July 8th.

"It's a remarkable comeback and a testament to all the hard work he's put in," Baynes' agent, Daniel Moldovan, told ESPN.

Baynes fell and was knocked unconscious when he went to the bathroom between the third and fourth quarters in a Tokyo Olympics group stage match against Italy. The next thing he knew, he couldn't walk as both legs were completely numb. He had lost his ability to walk.

He was then rushed to a local hospital, where scans showed internal bleeding that was putting pressure on the player's spine. He would then spend several months in hospitals, trying to learn to walk again.

"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," Baynes told ESPN back in January.

Due to COVID-19 protocols at the time, he wasn't able to communicate with anyone directly outside of nurses and doctors both in Japan and Australia. Progressing from wheelchair to walker to walking on his own, Baynes slowly regained his step.

"If you saw me now, you wouldn't know anything happened," Baynes said in January. "There's been a lot of progress in the last six months."

He's now able to walk, run, shoot, and dunk again, and he's making a comeback to professional basketball.

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