Isaiah Austin’s battle with adversity leads him to DI coaching

Writer: Sylvie Sparks
Published: Updated:

A lifetime of blood, sweat and tears went into Isaiah Austin’s basketball career.

Every sacrifice leading to the NBA.

Until a stress test at the 2014 NBA Combine lead to a Marfan Syndrome diagnosis, shattering the Baylor star’s NBA dream.

“It was tough,” Austin said. “It’s kind of like you’re losing a close family member. Basketball has been with me for my whole life.”

The 7’1″ center’s growing aortic valve ended his professional career before it even started.

“You think that you’re at the end of the road and you’re going to finally cross the finish line and then circumstances that are out of your control just happen.”

No one saw it coming. He never showed any signs and he was on everyone’s radar since high school.

He won the City of Palms Classic with the Grace Prep Lions back in 2011.

What the world didn’t know then is that he is blind in one eye.

“We actually didn’t make it public until after my freshman year of college, we let the whole nation know that I’ve been blind in my right eye since I believe the end of my freshman year of high school.”

With one eye only, Austin became a McDonald’s All-American, Division I player and top NBA draft prospect so when Marfan Syndrome took away his dream of playing in the league it was hard to accept, but he knew how to overcome adversity.

“Try to think of ways that you can grow from the situation instead of just drowning yourself more, because it’s easier to pull yourself into the sinking hole than to pull yourself out.”

And he did. Austin was medically cleared to play pro overseas before coming home to play in the BIG3 and work for the NBA.

What really keeps him going, is giving back to the game so this summer he joined Florida Atlantic University as an assistant men’s basketball coach.

“I wanted to place myself in a position to be able to help other men get to the level that I wasn’t able to get to.”

Make no mistake he wants this team to win so he pushes them hard, but that’s not his main goal.

“I just want players to realize that basketball is a privilege and to enjoy it while it lasts, because we all started playing this game just for the love of the game.”

To Austin, the mindset of a great pro is that basketball is fun, so when he’s tough on the Owls in practice it’s because he wants them to enjoy the game for as long as they can.

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