Boomer Aron Baynes is looking to resume his basketball career and will work out for NBA teams less than a year after spending months learning to walk again.
Veteran Boomers big Aron Baynes will work out for NBA teams on Saturday, less than a year after a shocking spinal injury forced him to learn how to walk again.
The 35-year-old's career looked finished when he sustained the freak injury while playing for the national team at the Tokyo Olympics, forcing him to miss the entire 2021-22 NBA season.
But after spending about six hours a day on physio exercises since the Olympics, Baynes is ready to show off his skills to NBA scouts in Las Vegas.
Baynes' agent Daniel Moldovan expects a representative from each NBA team to be in attendance during the workout.
"(He has) been back on court since February shooting and running," Moldovan told AAP.
"Just a true professional. He is and always has been a workhorse and his desire to get back to the NBA is clear given how ahead of schedule he is."
Baynes spent two months in Tokyo and Brisbane hospitals after being knocked unconscious in the locker room during Australia's win against Italy at last year's Olympics.
He couldn't walk when he regained consciousness and scans showed his spine had suffered pressure due to internal bleeding.
It is still unclear exactly what led to the fall.
"The loneliest time in my life was laying in that hospital, going in and out of consciousness, going over my life plan and my goals and just crying," Baynes told ESPN earlier this year.
"My uncle Don had an accident 10 years ago. He's a quadriplegic. My family's had first-hand experience with this going down. I was so scared."
Baynes has played for the San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns, while most recently he spent the 2020-21 NBA campaign with the Toronto Raptors, where he averaged 6.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.
He is an NBA champion, having won the 2014 title with the Spurs.
If he is able to earn another crack in the NBA, it would mark one of the most inspirational returns in Australian sporting history.
