"THEY PUT ME IN THIS THING; IT LOOKED ALMOST LIKE A CASKET" - RONNIE FIELDS RECALLS THE CAR ACCIDENT THAT COST HIM HIS ONCE-PROMISING CAREER
Ronnie Fields was going to be a surefire NBA player with the potential of being a star. The 6'3" high-flyer was on the verge of finishing his legendary high school career at Farragut Academy at a time when the NBA allowed the prep-to-pros movement.
Ronnie's high school teammate and close friend, Kevin Garnett, had gotten drafted in 1995, while Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O'Neal, two players in the same class as Fields, went straight from high school to the pros in 1996.
Fields was supposed to make the same jump to the big league. However, his entire life changed on February 26, 1996—two days before he turned 19—when he crashed his car on a slippery road, broke his neck, and needed surgery to repair three cervical vertebrae. During an appearance on "All The Smoke," Ronnie, now 47, bravely recalled the harrowing moments of the accident that robbed him of a meaningful hoops career.
A rainy night on a slippery road
Fields shared the events that transpired that night, saying it was nearly midnight and he had just dropped off his teammate. As he headed home, the rain began pouring, rendering visibility almost zero. As he drove past a ramp, Ronnie failed to see a deep pothole already filled with water.
"You couldn't see a pothole this big. It was filled with water with rain coming down. I never forget it; the driver's side tire hit that hole. There was a bridge about 60 miles an hour, hit, spun, boom, right into the wall," the retired player narrated.
Since it was already late at night, the roads were practically empty, and Ronnie had to amble to the street to ask for help.
"Now it's like 12:45 in the morning, nobody out. I'm still in shock, not realizing how bad I was cut and bleeding because of the rain, so I just thought that's what it was. Then I see a semi-truck on the other side of the highway coming, so I go to try to flag it down. He saw me at the last second and almost hit me, so I just moved out of the way," Fields continued.
First responders eventually arrived and brought Ronnie to the nearest medical center. Little did he know that his nightmare had only just begun.
Didn't think his injuries were bad
Being young has its fair share of benefits. Ronnie, who was only 18 then, was naive enough to think he'd be in and out of the hospital and playing in Chicago's Public League playoffs in a few days. However, as the doctor spoke, apprising him of his condition, he knew it was worse than he thought.
"So, I'm in the hospital bed, hooked up to all these things, and I'm thinking I'll be able to go back and play in two days. The doctor came in and said, 'No, he's going to be out for a while; it's going to take time for you to heal,'" Fields stated. "They put me in this thing; it looked almost like a casket, with this weight connected to keep my neck stabilized. It looked weird. I'm sleeping, then I wake up and see Kevin right, leaning over me, and he broke down. At that moment, I realized this must be worse than I thought."
The reality was that the once proud hooper had suffered a horrendous neck injury, and the more pertaining question wasn't if he could play again but more of if he could move again.
"The doctor explained what happened. He said, 'I'll be able to fuse these three bones in the back of your neck, and you should be good, and we'll put a plate there.' They had to cut off some of my hip to fuse my neck. From that point, it was more about how I would come back from this," Fields remarked.
Another opportunity at life
A few weeks later, Ronnie finally got back on the floor. He could still dunk but was forced to wear a halo—a medical device to stabilize the spine—for a few months. Looking back on the incident, he often shares with young kids how life, at times, can throw you a curve ball, but it is how you respond that matters.
"When I look back at that accident, I tell young kids today that life after basketball is about opportunities," the native of Chicago said. "Out of three possible outcomes from that accident, only one was good. I could have died, been paralyzed, or come back to play basketball. Out of the three, I got the best one; the other two were all bad."
Fields knows what could have been but says he no longer dwells on that. Instead, he immerses himself in helping players become the best versions of themselves through the program Ronnie Fields Elite. He also guides and trains young hoopers at Chicago Hope Academy, where he's the head coach.
2024-07-04T09:17:14Z dg43tfdfdgfd