Dooling Opens Up About Retirement

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Dooling opens up about his history of abuse, reasons for his retirement

 

When Keyon Dooling retired last week, it was a surprising development. He had just signed a new contract with the Boston Celtics in July, and by all accounts he still had much to contribute to the team and locker room as a veteran leader and capable perimeter defender. Many grasped at reasons for his decision, and the logic wasn't always there.

On Thursday, CSNNE.com published a story on Dooling's decision and the life experiences that went into it. It's a brave set of revelations from Dooling, who discusses his history of abuse and his hopes for the future. A small sampling of a must-read piece:

 

"I was talking about it with my wife and with my pastors and all the people that are in my life, and nobody wanted me to retire. Nobody wanted me to retire," he said. Years of repressed emotions came rushing back during this realization. Memories that Dooling had tried to bury were flooding out. "I actually had such a meltdown that I had to get professional help and I ended up in the hospital," said Dooling.

 

"It just all came to a head. To be honest with you, I blocked a lot of things out of my life. I'm a man who's been abused, sexually, emotionally, mentally. I've been abused in my life, and there's so many guys around the NBA who have been abused and I know it because I've been their therapist. I didn't even have the courage because I blocked it out so much that I couldn't even share that . . . "It took literally a meltdown for everybody to see how serious I was about not playing ball anymore."

 

But he was absolutely serious. "For so long I've always denied myself and what I feel for others, in particular my family of origin and my wife and my children and my friends who I really trust," he said. "It just got to the point where it was like, they don't know how much pain I'm in. They don't know how lonely the road can be. They don't know the stuff that comes along with being an NBA player. They don't know how many people call my phone begging for money every day. They don't know how many people call me asking for advice. They don't know how many people rely on me to be happy when they're down. They don't understand the grind that mentally I have to go through to be this man I am every day.

"I just gave out too much and I wasn't getting enough back . . . [With] the exception of the Celtics organization, nobody ever truly appreciated me until this year."

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