Shawn Bradley Recounts Fears That Moments After Bike Accident Were His 'Last': 'I Didn't Know'

“I didn’t know if I was going to slowly pass away there on the pavement or I was going to gain function again, if I was going to be able to move,” the former NBA center recounted of the Jan. 2021 accident

Photo: Tamron Hall Show/YouTube

Shawn Bradley is getting candid about the terrifying Jan. 2021 bike accident that paralyzed him — and the moments when he worried he wasn't going to survive.

The former NBA center, 49, shared that he only wanted to talk with his wife Carrie Cannon as he waited for paramedics after the incident while appearing on The Tamron Hall Show Wednesday.

"I didn't know if that was going to be my last moment to be honest," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to slowly pass away there on the pavement or I was going to gain function again, if I was going to be able to move and I desperately needed to talk to my wife, the love of my life."

He continued, "I just wanted to make I had some communication with her if those were my last moments."

Bradley was injured while riding his bicycle on Jan. 20, 2021, a block from his home in St. George, Utah. The former NBA player was struck from behind by an automobile, his former team the Dallas Mavericks said in a press release later that year.

The accident caused a traumatic spinal cord injury, ultimately leaving Bradley paralyzed. He was hospitalized for eight weeks after undergoing neck fusion surgery and subsequent rehabilitation, the team added at the time.

Former Dallas Mavericks Player Shawn Bradley Paralyzed in Bicycle Accident

During his interview with Hall, Bradley also shared how he found out that he had a spinal cord injury in the hospital after the accident.

"Well, when the doctor came and said 'You've suffered a spinal cord injury, it's complete.' I asked, 'What does that mean?' " he recounted. "It means you're not going to have a function from your chest down and you probably aren't going to be able [to move] your arms and hands very well but you know, it was shock obviously."

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He added, "I thought to myself, 'Well, I'm not a person that doesn't have hope so we're going to have whatever hope we can.' We don't want false hope but at the same time we want to make sure together we do everything we can to overcome this as much as possible."

The former NBA star also revealed that he is now able to move his hands "a little bit" and can move his "shoulders up and down."

Bradley also spoke about how he lives each day to the fullest, despite his challenging situation.

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"What we have today we're going to maximize and we have something new tomorrow we'll work on that but we're not going to have false hope," he said.

He added, "I'm not going to say like in a month I'm going to walk. I mean miracles happen but that's not going to happen so we deal with what we have, we maximize the best we can and we move forward together."

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Bradley was drafted out of Brigham Young University in 1993, going as the number two pick in the draft to the Philadelphia 76ers. He joined the Mavericks in 1997, and spent the majority of his career with the Texas franchise.