My body had given up on me at one point. And as many injuries as I've had over the years, I truly believed that my body needed to rest and not be on the grind like it's been for the last 15 years.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I was getting injured so much, I spoke to my family and my manager and said, 'I need my body to recover.' The first thing I thought was that I needed to stay upright. When I went back to Brazil to play, after a few months, my body was perfect.
My spine healed incorrectly. There were long periods when I'd be perfectly all right, and then there were many other times when I wasn't, when my back would give out and throw me down to the floor amid waves of nauseating pain.
In the past I've had a bad injury, and then struggled when I've got back because I've been unfit.
I went through so many things personally, emotionally and mentally during that time off that I know that I'm better for it now and I think I'm a better athlete because of that.
I damaged my hamstring at the London Olympics and had to stop training for five months. At times, I thought my career was over.
It's always hard to deal with injuries mentally, but I like to think about it as a new beginning. I can't change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than before.
It was probably right after I made my comeback - after retiring post-2008 Olympics - when I finally felt more at ease with my body. Being away from the sport helped put things in perspective.
What I would say is I've only had one injury in my NBA career that was probably was because my core wasn't strong enough, when I had a stress fracture in my back.
I've had so many injuries.
I've had so many injuries in my life that it's ridiculous.
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