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Donaldson
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Calif. Where Coach Calhoun came up
beside me and encouraged me to take baby
steps, to start fulfilling that potential a long
time before I could see that potential. So
that’s where I came from. It also helps to
come from a solid family background that
really emphasized academics for the first
part. I knew I was going to be a good stu-
dent and stay in school and at least graduate
from high school, that was my pathway, but
athletics came into the picture pretty late.
tSN: What separates this book from a lot
of the other self-help books out there?
JD: Well I think that due to the fact that I
have gone through two to three distint, dif-
ferent career transitions, a lot of people are
struggling … how to remake themselves,
how to keep a clear focus and how to keep
a clear game plan and strategy when all of a
sudden the rug gets pulled out from beneath
them. So my book is really one of encour-
agement, not just the commonsense
approach, but one that encourages you to
take a deep introspective look at yourself,
continue to have faith and trust in yourself,
a higher power and those that you keep
around you.
tSN: Was it difficult for when you went
from basketball to having your own physi-
cal therapy clinic?
JD: Not really, I started the physical ther-
apy clinic 21 years ago right in the middle
of my 20-year basketball career. I had a
devastating knee injury 10 years into my
career, I was in my early 30s and the prog-
nosis and outlook was very bleak on
whether I’d ever return to playing again. So
at that point I had what I call a lightbulb
moment to go to therapy for five months. I
asked myself, if I cannot play again, what
am I going to do? I was a college grad so I
was ok with that, and I had other skills, but
there was nothing that I was as passionate
about as basketball and that’s when physical
therapy came to the forefront. I said, I know
what I want to do now, create an envi-
ronemtn where people can come and get
well again, be surrounded by great physical
therapists, my massage therapist, my nutri-
tionalist, my athletic trainers … that’s when
my epiphany hit hard and I went ahead and
opened my first clinic. I did eventually
make it back to play another 10 years to
play professional basketball, but my clinic
was off and running and maturing by the
time I retired. During those early years, I
was basically a hands off manager and
owner, and after basketball I had something
to transfer into.
tSN: Do most younger professional
sports players do a good job of looking
beyond their athletic careers and planning
for the future?
JD: No, most players do not do a good job
of planning past their athletic careers. You
see a story in the NY Times today about Tiki
Barber, a great running back for the Ny
Giants, where at 36 years of age, after being
retired for four years, all of a sudden he’s
coming back to try out for professional foot-
ball again, because he never found that pas-
sion again, something that gets him out of
bed, that has him putting the same amount
of effort and emphasis to it as the sport that
he loved. A lot of athletes are challenged
with that. Most of us retire early. A couple
of reasons I was motivated to join the
Legends of Basketball, otherwise known as
the NBA Retired Players Association as a
board member because less than 20 percent
of us have a college degree. And also, 85
percent of us will be going through a
divorce upon retirement, for a career that
lasts 3 years on average. Those are a lot of
dynamics that are not in your favor. What
we try to do on a board level, we try to cre-
ate programs that will be helpful to the guys
on their transition, even before they retire.
tSN: Did that experience help you craft
the book?
JD: It did. It really did. Part of my frater-
nity, is hundreds of hundreds of retired
players who are trying to find themselves. I
was lucky that out of an adverse situation
such as the devastating knee injury, to find
what I wanted to do next that wasn’t about
playing.
tSN: Now a couple of basketball ques-
tions. I’ve read that you never even attempt-
ed a three-pointer in your entire NBA
career. Why?
JD: Well, you gotta remember, I played
back in the 80s and 90s. the three-point
game wasn’t as totally utilized by every
player on the court back then. You had guys
on the team whose specific job was to shoot
three-pointers. So, I played my whole career
– and I’m the answer to a trivia question if
you ever here this – who played the most
amount of games, the most amount of sea-
sons without ever, ever attempting a three-
point shot and that’s me. As the years wore
on and I became aware of this trivia, I just
said, it’s not my role, not my strength to
hoist up three-pointers. I’d see guys like
Manut Bol throw them up there from all
over the place and Ralph Samson from time
to time and other 7-footers. But it was not
my game and I had no inclination to give it
a try.
tSN: During your entire career, were
there ever any players or teams that you
absolutely dreaded getting on the court with
either because they were so good or so
dirty?
JD: Yeah, I do werite about that in the
book. Of course the bad boys up in the
Detroit who were filthy and nasty … Rick
Mahorn and Bill Lambier, I’m not sure
which was which, it didn’t matter. They’d
put you in those double team sandwiches
and knock the living daylights out of you
from time to time. So tough teams like the
Pistons, but also hall of fame caliber teams
like the LA Showtime Lakers, with Magic,
and kareem and Cooper and Worthy and
Scott, Pat Riley running the show. Hall fo
famers all the way around. I thought I
played my best when I went up against the
best. I learned early in my career that I
couldn’t shy away from competition and
from feeling a little bit intimidated by those
little things. That’s another thing I try to
convey to the young people out there. Step
up to the challenge. Make it happen.
tSN: And finally, who are you rooting for
in the NBA Finals?
JD: Well it looks like the Miami Heat is
the one who has their act together, playing
better and better as the playoffs go on.
Originally I had Miami and the Lakers
picked to match up in the finals, but I think
I’m going to go for Miami and my beloved
Dallas Mavericks in the finals.
Visit:
www.StandingAboveTheCrowd.com for
more information. If you order the book
from his website, Donaldson will personal-
ly autograph the book.
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