43ducked under a door frame to enter a room.
Now, though, his height is his primary hindrance.
Already facing the most trying of circumstances, Bradley
will see every task made doubly demanding by his stature.
His accident presents a challenge without precedent in
modern medical history, and the totality of it all will tax
his mental health, as well as that of the people who love
him, particularly the relentlessly positive wife onto whose
shoulders have fallen extraordinary responsibility.
Before Finley left, Bradley savored a goodbye hug. “It’s
hard for me to let them see me like this,” he said afterward,
choking back tears. “It’s the challenge of remembering
what once was...and knowing it’ll never be the same.”B
RADLEY PASSED THE early afternoon of his last
normal day astride a black custom-made Trek Project
One bicycle with seven six inscribed on the frame (for
his height, not for the 76ers, who drafted him). He had
logged thousands of miles on that bike, roughly one and
a half times the height of a standard model, as a means
of keeping body and mind nimble in retirement. He even
willed his way through several 100-mile rides.
Just before he exited a roundabout, a few blocks from
his home in St. George, Utah, Bradley says he took note
of a Saturn sedan parked on the shoulder of the two-lane
street ahead, knowing that he would have to zag left if
the driver’s door opened. Hugging the right edge of the
right-hand lane, he says he signaled a move farther into the
lane as he pedaled up a slight grade, cruising at 12 mph.
In a Dodge minivan just behind him, a young mother
was hustling to pick up her
child from school. Bradley,
who avoids naming the
driver, to shield her from
public scrutiny, says she
bumped him from behind
as he drifted left to avoid
the Saturn—his Garmin
GPS shows that he instan-
taneously accelerated to
17 mph—which propelled
him toward the parked car.
The shifter on his right han-
dlebar caught the Saturn’s
rear flank and jerked his
front wheel sharply to the right, pulling the bike to a sud-
den stop and sending Bradley’s colossal body skyward.
Bradley tumbled over the trunk and the driver’s side
of the Saturn, and he landed headfirst on the asphalt, his
helmet cracking under his 300-odd pounds. (Police say
the driver continued on but returned to the scene later.
Never charged with a crime, she says she gave Bradley
enough room when passing him.) Confused but conscious
after the spill, splayed on the ground and gazing up at a
crystalline sky, Bradley says he went through a mental
checklist. He couldn’t move his arms or his legs. He couldn’tFEBRUARY 2022REJECTION
LEADER
More than a
decade before the
crash in St. George,
Bradley made his
name in the paint,
blocking 2.5 shots
per game, which
ranks ninth on the
NBA’s all-time list.S H A W N B R A D L E Y