Larry Sanders walked away from the NBA while just on the cusp of stardom, and the 27-year-old says he’s in no rush to get back into the League.
Unless he can join a team that accepts his terms—whatever those may be—Sanders is content to pursue a life away from the court.
I spent 3 days w/@LarrySanders, basketball's great enigma, to learn who he is & why he says he doesn’t need the NBA: https://t.co/8RdDpxolS7
— Mike Piellucci (@mikelikessports) August 30, 2016
The big fella, who last played for the Milwaukee Bucks a year and a half ago, has been keeping busy making and producing music.
Per VICE:
“I won’t put myself in that situation again,” he said. “Honestly, there will never be the urgency to do it. I don’t care if I’m dead broke on the beach somewhere, because I understand—I truly believe in my heart—there’s too many things to do in this world.”
“It’s a life recipe. It’s not just basketball,” he said. “So I fell in love with the recipe—with the fact that I can put my energy into something, watch myself get better, and as a team we can work toward a common goal and change things.” […] That’s why he says he’s in no rush to go back to the NBA. It offers nothing he needs. For him, the league has never been the source. It’s merely a delivery mechanism.
Still, basketball tugs at him. Sanders missed the game so much that he purchased Lakers season tickets about 14 rows off the floor. “I had to watch Kobe this year,” he grinned. […] Sanders refers to himself as retired from the NBA, but there’s no concealing the mirth in his voice whenever the sport—the activity of playing basketball—enters the conversation. And when that happens, retired or not, he speaks in the present tense. If Sanders truly does not love basketball, like some skeptics suggest—well, then, he puts on a very convincing illusion.
