MILWAUKEE — There's a quote that says, "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." Nobody understands that better than Vin Baker.
"I feel like now that I'm back for this second chance, I have a better perspective. I feel like I was brought through this journey for a reason and I was brought back to Milwaukee for a reason," said Baker.
TMJ4's Andrea Williams asked him to take us back to the day that he became the eighth draft pick for the Milwaukee Bucks.
"Yeah, it was a great day. It was in Detroit and just like any young person growing up, it was a dream of mine to play in the NBA," said Baker.
Baker says he had a lot to prove after being drafted.
"I had grown up in a small town, went to a small university, University of Hartford, so I was excited, but I was kinda not known in the NBA or across the country."
That quickly changed. He was an NBA All-Star for four straight years and became a U.S. Olympian. But that wasn't all that changed for this preacher's kid.
"A lot of the things that I grew up... My values, morals, they changed overnight...You play hard, you work hard, you party hard and so that's where it changed me," said Baker.
In 1997, after four years with the Bucks, he was traded to the Sonics.
"When did you see your journey kind of change?" asked Williams.
"I think the biggest turn in my journey was when I got to Seattle. It was my fourth year, I had just reached my fourth All-Star game, I was named second team all NBA, I had just got my Jordan signature shoe. I was at the top of, not just the top of my career, but at the top of basketball."
Unfortunately, Baker didn't stay at the top of his game.
"Slowly the partying, the hanging out, the drinking started to infiltrate everything that I had built, and at the time I just didn't recognize it," said Baker.
After spending five years in Seattle, he was then traded to Boston and things were going to get worse before they got any better. He was suspended after a coach smelled alcohol on him and he was later released from the team.
"Like any alcoholic, you could smell it, you could feel it. Like there was a problem and so it was the start...the beginning of the end of my career, but the start of my journey to sobriety," said Baker.
Perhaps the most inspiring part of Baker's story is his second shot at life!
"If those things didn't happen, if that coach didn't say something, if that GM didn't react, that player didn't say anything, I probably wouldn't be here speaking to you today," said Baker.
Tune in to TMJ4 on Tuesday at 4 p.m. for part two of Vin Baker's remarkable journey.
