Update on Rodney Rogers

This was in the local paper; tough, tough situation:

http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/03/12/article/durham_bull_says_aposim_still_rodney


Durham Bull says 'I'm still Rodney'
Thursday, March 12

By SCOTT FOWLER
The Charlotte Observer
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ATLANTA — For the first time since he was paralyzed from the shoulders down three months ago, former Wake Forest and NBA basketball star Rodney Rogers is ready to talk.

He wants you to know his story. He wants you to understand he has not lost his faith. Or his hope.

Rogers, 37, sits in his wheelchair. On this day, he is dressed in black. The hands that once palmed a basketball so easily lie motionless. He now breathes with the help of a ventilator.

He played for 12 years in the NBA. He now needs constant care after breaking his neck in a dirt-bike accident last year.

"We went riding dirt bikes," Rogers says. "And going through the trail, I kind of hit a ditch and it flipped me over the handlebars. I thought I had my hands down. But I didn't. Fell on my head. Broke my neck."

Rogers is still the Durham Bull, the nickname he picked up as a 6-foot-7, 260-pound high school forward from Durham who could batter through any defense. He has gotten considerably better over the past three months. In 100 days, Rogers bulled through three hospitals, two months in intensive care and dozens of rehab sessions. He hasn't regained any use of his arms or legs.

On Monday, Rogers left Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in the treatment of spinal-cord injuries, to go to his new wheelchair-accessible home in the Triangle. He plans to live there with his fiancee, Faye Suggs.

He understands he is likely to be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. But he dreams of lifting his hands again or rising from his wheelchair.

"I pray for that every day," Rogers said.

It was the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 28. Some of his friends wanted to go to Vance County, about an hour north of Raleigh, to ride dirt bikes and four-wheelers. He had done a lot of that since retiring after his 12-year NBA career ended in 2005.

He was wearing a helmet. He wore protective gear on his arms and legs. "But not a neck brace," he says matter-of-factly.

The accident occurred in the afternoon, as he rode a dirt bike. He didn't see the ditch at first. When he did, he realized he was going too fast. He hit the ditch with the front wheel of the dirt bike.

"Then," Rogers says, "I bounced."

He flipped head-first over the handlebars. Even in the air, he says, he doesn't remember being concerned. As soon as he came down, he knew something was wrong. His friends circled back on their own vehicles to check on him.

"I never lost consciousness," Rogers says. "I told them when they came back and got me: 'I think I done messed up and broke my neck.' I didn't feel nothing. I couldn't move my arms, couldn't move my legs. I knew it wasn't right."

Rogers had extensive surgery at Duke University. The damage was to his third and fourth cervical vertebrae — a high spinal-cord injury. On Dec. 3, Rogers traveled by air ambulance from Duke to Atlanta's Shepherd Center, one of the country's leading facilities for spinal-cord injuries. He stayed in intensive care for two months.

Suggs was with him constantly. When Rogers moved into a regular room, she decorated it with a Wake Forest pennant and pictures of Rogers' three kids. Former ACC and NBA friends and foes came by — Ralph Sampson, Tony Delk, Dennis Scott.

Robert Doggett, a former teammate of Rogers' in AAU basketball and at Wake Forest, lives in Atlanta. He took Rogers and a nurse for an outing. They went to Target and Best Buy. Rogers had to overcome a case of nerves to get in the van.

"I almost didn't want to go," he says. "I hadn't been outside in months. Sometimes you worry about how people will look at you. ... But it was pretty good."

Former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom visited many times and has been heartened lately to see Rogers' humor returning.

"He's getting back his playfulness," Odom says.

Suggs and Rogers bought a house in the Triangle despite never having seen it in person. They chose it from Atlanta mostly for its wheelchair accessibility.

Rogers has fought through difficult situations before. He grew up in Durham, mostly in public housing. He did not know his father well and was reared mostly by his mother. When he was a sophomore at Hillside High, she was involved in a nearly fatal car wreck. By then, he was being heavily recruited. Odom says he was "the most important recruit we ever had."

Wake Forest made the NCAA tournament each of Rogers' three seasons. After his junior year, he turned pro. He was the No. 9 overall pick in the 1993 draft, selected by the Denver Nuggets. He would go on to play for seven NBA teams in a solid 12-year career.

Then he moved back to Durham. He began dating Suggs. He took a job with the city of Durham as a heavy equipment operator (the health insurance would later come in handy).

Rogers helped start a youth football team. He coached a middle school girls basketball team. All that had to stop, of course. Rogers requires constant care. He needs to be fed. He needs to be washed. He needs to be moved from bed to wheelchair.

His three children live with their mother in Arizona. They visited after Rogers was injured, and he hopes to see them again during their spring break.

"Although," says Rogers, glancing down at his body, "you hate to have them see you like this."

Rogers and Suggs didn't tell many people they were driving home on Monday. They wanted to settle in for a couple of days. Rogers says he is eager to see friends and fans again. When asked how he wants to be treated, he leans his head forward slightly.

"I don't want people to treat me any different," he says. "I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I'm in a wheelchair. But I'm Rodney. I'm still Rodney."