Vin Baker Rumors
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Vin Baker
Position: -
Born: 11/23/71
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:240 lbs. / 108.9 kg.
Earnings: $97,390,894 ($141,355,513*)
Born: 11/23/71
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:240 lbs. / 108.9 kg.
Earnings: $97,390,894 ($141,355,513*)
Two days after Oakley was arrested and dragged out of the Garden in February of 2017, Dolan famously invited several former players — including Latrell Sprewell — to attend a game. It was a transparent attempt to show Dolan had support despite the Oakley fiasco. One of the players in attendance, Vin Baker, told the Huffington Post at the time that Dolan “called me sounding really sad asking me if I would come sit with him. Hadn’t spoke to him in 15 years.” Lee, however, was clearly supporting Oakley. He wore a #34 Oakley jersey at his courtside seat and criticized Dolan for calling his friend an alcoholic.
Former NBA star and Old Saybrook native Vin Baker has been sober for almost 9 years but his journey to recovery was not an easy one. Now at 47, Baker is sober and trying to help others get back on track. Here’s his story in his own words: “My journey to recovery started with me hitting rock bottom in all facets of my life. Spiritually, physically, financially and probably in that order. I got tired of being tired. I just woke up one morning after having this amazing career and life of being in the NBA, and being an All Star, and being an Olympian in my time to waking up and everything being gone.”
Vin Baker: “My first few times of going to recovery, like I was in Boston playing for the Celtics as matter of fact, and the first time I went into detox was ‘I got to save my contract, I’ve got to save my career.’ It wasn’t I have to save my life and those were the very reasons that kept me in this vicious cycle of relapsing all the time.”
Vin Baker: “So because of being a public figure for me, I honestly think it took me longer, my very first time going to detox I used an alias. For five months straight, true story, I used a character from a TV show when I was in group settings to cover up who I was, which is kind of weird because I’m six foot eleven, and my first recovery, detox attempt, was in New England. And I was playing for the Boston Celtics so I know people were in the room like, “we know who you are!”, the funny part was, I didn’t know who I was.”
On Wednesday, Vin Baker brought his story of downfall and recovery to Kenosha County’s drug treatment court. And his message was clear: “We all can do it. You can get sober, no matter what. No matter what situation you are in. If I can do it, you can do it,” Baker told them. “That’s why I came today.”
Baker told the group that his own addiction cost him his NBA career and left him penniless after losing millions of dollars. He ultimately rebuilt his life after getting sober by working as a barista Starbucks. Now nine years sober, he said he was working as a manager at a Starbucks when the Bucks called to offer him a coaching job.
