Chandler Parsons was building toward something in Atlanta. After a run through the league that included big contracts, knee injuries, and plenty of criticism, the veteran forward had landed with the Atlanta Hawks in the 2019-20 season, looking to prove he still belonged. That chapter ended in a matter of seconds.
Parsons spent nine seasons in the league across four teams, including the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks, averaging 12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists over 440 games.
On January 15, 2020, around 2:00 p.m., Parsons was driving home from Hawks practice when another driver ran into him at a busy intersection. The other driver was heavily intoxicated, had alcohol in the vehicle, and later passed out at the scene before being arrested and charged with DUI. Parsons was knocked unconscious on impact.
He recently appeared on the “Out The Mud” podcast and walked through the crash in detail, calling it a life-altering moment from the second it happened.
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“I was just driving home from practice in Atlanta, and I was on a little feeder road getting on the highway,” Parsons said. “Just got blindsided. Knocked unconscious. I had never even been in a fender bender. I just remember I woke up, and I couldn’t move my neck. It was so bad, the ambulance was already there by the time I got up, figured out.”
He was taken to the hospital connected to the Atlanta practice facility. A place players usually only visited for routine stuff. This was anything but. Parsons said he was quickly advised to get legal representation, given the uncertainty around the driver and how things might play out.
Chandler Parsons on the DUI Driver and Career-Ending Injuries
“The next day, you find out this dude — it was his third DUI,” Parsons added. “He had a bottle of Tito’s in the passenger seat. He was just, like, fully [expletive] drunk. Was obviously at fault. So that kind of changed the whole narrative of the whole situation, and I was [expletive] up. I had torn my labrum. I had herniated two discs in my back. I had a traumatic brain injury, which is scary enough even just talking about brain.”
The injuries were serious enough on their own. Moreover, the crash came as the COVID-19 pandemic soon began tearing through the sports calendar. The Hawks didn’t qualify for the NBA bubble restart that summer, which left Parsons in an already uncertain spot with major health issues still unresolved.
He eventually faced a decision most athletes dread. He could pursue an insurance settlement or try to push through physically and chase one or two more seasons in the league. Given everything his body had been through, he chose the settlement. With that, his NBA career was over.
Retirement under those circumstances would break a lot of people. Parsons said becoming a husband and father helped redirect his focus toward what came next rather than what he left behind.
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