Larry Sanders abruptly left the Milwaukee Bucks last season, foregoing nearly half of his $44 million contract to walk away from basketball. Sanders had long been an advocate for mental health awareness in professional sports, and it was his wellbeing coupled with his disinterest in basketball that led him to leave the NBA. Sanders, in his post-exit interviews, said he wasn’t interested in coming back to to the game.
That held to be true even in April when Sanders was back in Milwaukee. As Gary Woelfel of the Milwaukee Journal Times wrote:
Former Bucks center Larry Sanders was in Milwaukee this week and, according to some individuals close to him, he still doesn’t have any desire to play professional basketball again. The Bucks bought out the beleaguered center’s contract and will be paying him just under $3 million a year for the next seven years.
Fast forward to October, and there are rumblings that Sanders is considering a comeback. Exhibit A:
You knew this was inevitable: A source tells me a Western Conference team has had internal talks about possibly signing Larry Sanders.
— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) October 12, 2015
Seems innocent enough, right? Just kicking the tires, not actually reaching out to Sanders himself. Yet, when coupled with Exhibit B, this appears to be more than mere speculation.
Just landed in Texas…👀✈️
— Dr. Larry Sanders II (@l8show_thegoat) October 12, 2015
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmesian levels of deduction to see where this is going. There just so happens to be a team in Texas in dire, dire need of a center, probably willing to take a flyer on anyone who can help them out: the Dallas Mavericks.
Now, nothing is even close to official, but it certainly won’t be surprising if that’s how this specific cookie crumbles.
