Wake Forest Basketball Legend Rodney Rogers (the Durham Bull) Deals With Paralysis After 2008 Dirt Bike Accident

A 2008 dirt bike accident paralyzed Wake Forest basketball legend Rodney Rogers. Hear the story of his recovery and his attempt to find happiness in life from ACC Kings of the Court here.

Rodney Ray Rogers (born June 20, 1971, in Durham, North Carolina is a retired American basketball player who last played power forward for the NBA's Philaelphia 76ers.

Rogers attended Hillside High School in Durham. As an athlete, he was known as "the Durham Bull." He was a two-time Greensboro News & Record All-State selection, and was named the 1990 North Carolina state Player of the Year. As a junior he averaged 22.5 points and 9.7 rebounds, and in his senior year he averaged 28.3 points and 12.3 rebounds on a team that finished 27-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the state 4-A playoffs.

 

From 1990 until 1993, Rogers played college basketball at Wake Forest University, where he won the 1990-1991 season Rookie of the Year honor (over Grant Hill) and was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in 1993, averaging 21.2 points and 7.4 rebounds. His final college statistics were 19.3 points and 7.9 rebounds, and he was the number nine draft pick in the 1993 NBA Draft for the Denver Nuggets.  Rogers' college jersey #54 was retired in February 1996 by the Demon Deacons. 

 Rogers entered the NBA as the first-round draft choice of the Denver Nuggets in 1993. He played for the Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics, New jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets, and Philadelphia 76ers until retiring after the 2004-05 season. He reached the NBA Finals with the Nets in 2002-03, and his trade to the Celtics during the 2001-02 season sparked Boston on a run to the Eastern Conference finals.
In 12 seasons Rogers averaged 25.3 minutes and 10.9 points per game and shot 34.7 percent from 3-point range.
  Rogers, 42, who had a 12-year NBA career and won the league's sixth man award in 1999-2000, was riding in the woods in rural Vance County, N.C., November 28, 2008 when he fell off the vehicle, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol. He is paralyzed from the shoulders down and doctors have given him only a 5% chance of ever walking again..

This video tells his story of his recovery and his attempt to find happiness in life.