WHAT I READ THIS WEEK
Nobody tells you that you have to become a rookie again.
Throughout my semi-illustrious career, one of the strangest things about that experience was how comfortable I eventually became being uncomfortable. I could get off a plane in a country I'd never been, meet a bunch of dudes I couldn't communicate with, learn a new offense, defense and seventeen out of bounds plays, figure out where I was living and somehow be ready to play basketball like two days later. After enough years, that was just life. I knew how to be a professional basketball player, even when I had absolutely no idea what was happening around me…then one day I wasn't one anymore.
I read three studies this week, and the first had me thinking about how strange it is to spend most of your life becoming exceptionally good at something, only to reach a point where you have to start all over again.
The study, published in PLOS One earlier this month, involved 30 former elite athletes in China who became coaches after retiring. Researchers wanted to understand how these athletes adjusted to their new professional responsibilities and what made that adjustment difficult.
What was crazy was the gap between what these athletes expected and what they experienced. They had spent years competing at an elite level…understood training, competition, discipline and what it took to succeed in sports. But when they entered their new profession, they discovered that knowing how to perform at a high level didn't necessarily mean they knew how to help somebody else get there.
The researchers described different stages of that adjustment, including the difficulties athletes encountered when their experiences in competitive sports didn't quite match the expectations of their new working environment.
By the time I was playing professionally, I had spent most of my life learning that job. I wasn't always the best player on the floor, but I understood the business I was in. And then basketball ended, and most of that expertise didn't mean nearly as much to the rest of the world as it had meant to me.
Which is a pretty fucking strange realization when you've spent your entire life being recognized for doing one thing EXTREMELY well.
I think people underestimate how frustrating that can be. You're an adult, who has worked professionally for years. You've traveled, dealt with difficult people, handled pressure and made a living doing something very few people ever get the opportunity to do. And suddenly you're asking somebody to explain something that seems incredibly basic to everybody else.
I can laugh about it now, but there is a certain amount of humility involved in realizing you're a complete fucking beginner again. And I don't think we talk about that enough when we discuss athlete transition.
We talk about finding another career, getting an education and using the skills we developed through sports. All important conversations…but what happens when somebody else gets that next opportunity? What happens when they're struggling to learn the job, making mistakes and realizing that being a successful athlete doesn't automatically make them successful at whatever the fuck next is?
The Chinese study involved a specific group of former athletes working in schools. It doesn't establish that every retired athlete experiences the same difficulties. But the adjustment those athletes described made a lot of sense to me. And it made me question whether we're spending enough time preparing athletes for the experience of being new at something again.
The second study was published on October 22 and examined 627 former college football players from 26 American universities. Researchers looked at cognitive functioning, depressive symptoms, mental health and life satisfaction within five years of the players leaving college.
One of the findings involved concussion history. Players who reported three or more lifetime concussions generally reported poorer cognitive and mental health outcomes than those who reported none. The association with greater depressive symptoms remained significant after the researchers accounted for other measured factors.
With four documented concussions…and God only knows how many undocumented ones, this was a comforting little read. Luckily, I’ll probably forget all about it all by tomorrow.
Although…the study doesn't exactly prove that concussions caused those symptoms. It relied on reported concussion histories and health questionnaires, and it doesn't mean every former football player with a concussion history is going to experience the same problems.But it made me think about something else that happens when an athletic career ends.
Your body doesn't retire just because you do.
I spent years dealing with injuries, but the knee injury I suffered in South Korea showed me just how quickly things could change when you got hurt overseas. The team sent me home, and suddenly I was left dealing with the injury and paying for my own medical care. Once I couldn't help them win basketball games, they didn't seem particularly concerned about what happened to me next.
And when you're young, you're so focused on getting healthy enough to play again that you don't always think about what these injuries might mean ten or twenty years later. Those researchers were looking at relatively young former athletes, only a few years removed from college....not me sitting in the orthopedic’s office on Wednesday preparing for knee replacement number 2.
I don't think the findings should be automatically applied to basketball players. Football has its own injury risks, and the researchers examined a specific population. But it raises a question that I think every athlete should be asking…What happens to your medical care when the people who were responsible for keeping you on the court or field are no longer involved?
I know how much attention goes into keeping professional athletes healthy enough to perform. But those resources disappear pretty quickly when you're no longer part of the organization. So whatever happened to your body while you were playing doesn't disappear with them.
I think we should be doing a much better job of preparing athletes for that reality, especially overseas athletes whose medical care might be tied to their contracts, teams or the countries they're living in.
The third study I read came out of Switzerland and followed elite athletes over two years. Researchers examined athletic identity, health and social support, and how different combinations of those characteristics related to whether athletes continued competing or retired.
One finding was particularly interesting. Athletes in the group with weaker athletic identity had approximately 2.7 times the odds of retiring, while those in the group with stronger athletic identity had about half the odds.
The study doesn't establish that athletic identity caused those decisions. It's entirely possible that some athletes were already preparing to retire, which could have influenced how strongly they identified with their sport. But I found it interesting because we hear so much about the dangers of athletes identifying too strongly with what they do.
I understand that conversation. I've written about it and lived through that shit myself. When you've spent most of your life being a basketball player, it's strange when that suddenly isn't your job anymore.
For years, I introduced myself through basketball without even second-guessing that decision. It was how people knew me and how I understood my fucking self. Then you retire, and people start asking what you're doing now, because apparently, I am a professional basketball player wasn't going to count anymore.
Main thing I took from this Swiss study, is that maybe we need to be a little more careful about treating a strong athletic identity like it's automatically something athletes need to fix.
I loved being a professional basketball player and worked my entire life to become one. And I don't particularly want to pretend that part of my identity should disappear just because I'm no longer getting paid to play. That experience is still part of who I am.
I think the challenge is figuring out how to carry it with you while making room for whatever comes next. I don't think everybody is going to approach that the same way though. Some athletes are ready to leave, while some are fucking terrified. Some want another five years but can't find a contract. Others have contracts available and are completely over the business. I've known players in both of these scenarios.
Reading these three studies together made me think about how much of athlete transition happens after everybody assumes the difficult part is over. You retire, find another job, and everybody kisses your ass for making the transition. Cool…now what?
You're learning a new profession where nobody cares what you averaged in the Polish league, while dealing with injuries that might still be affecting you years after your last game. And you're trying to figure out how to be somebody who spent most of his life being an athlete without feeling like that entire part of your identity has been taken away. That's a shitload to figure out…especially alone
The more I read about athlete transition, the more I realize how differently people experience it. Some athletes need help finding work, others need medical guidance, and others are doing fine financially but have absolutely no idea what to do with themselves now that their days aren't organized around practices and games.
One retirement workshop is NOT going to solve all of that.
I think about this shit a lot with OverseasX. I've talked to enough former players to know that everybody has a different experience when basketball ends. I want more of those people involved in our community, along with professionals who can help athletes with the things we were never really prepared to deal with.
And I'd love for an athlete who is still playing to hear these conversations now. I know when I was overseas, the last fucking thing I wanted to think about was retirement. But looking back, I wish I'd spent a little more time talking to the guys who had already been through it. Probably would've saved myself a few headaches.
I spent most of my life learning how to be a professional basketball player…and I was pretty fucking good at it. What I wasn't particularly prepared for was how much I'd have to learn once nobody needed me to be one anymore.
I think there are a lot of former athletes out there who know exactly what I'm talking about.
And for everyone still playing, enjoy every fucking minute of it. I mean that. But also…get to know some people who can help you figure out what comes next, because eventually you're going to need to learn how to do something you've never done before.
And being able to dunk a basketball isn't going to help you nearly as much as you think.
What I read this week
1. Occupational adaptation of retired elite athletes transitioning into school coaches in China
PLOS One, October 5, 2026
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358744
2. Cognitive and mental health in recently retired collegiate football players
Sports Medicine Open, October 22, 2026
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40798-026-01126-6
3. Continue or quit? Career resources and career termination among Swiss elite athletes
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, September 22, 2026
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2026.2733249