The widespread opioid crisis that recently blared from headlines around the world had already gripped the sports world many years ago, as evidenced by and recalled by former NBA player Grant Hill in an article published in 2017, when he discussed how he dealt with pain while he was still playing basketball.
According to The Basketball Network, it looked back on a 2017 GQ article that featured Hill as he spoke about the detrimental effects of having to deal with opioids. Back then, players really had no choice after an injury that required surgery; they were often prescribed opioids to deal with pain management, making it easier for some to get hooked on them. Hill told GQ
that most people, including him, did not know what the side effects were of taking the drug, but he had to do some research to figure it out. But, being that the drug was the only option, he tolerated what came with taking it.He first took opioids in 1993 after his first surgery. By the time 2000 came around, he started to experience a negative reaction around his second or third surgery, which caused several issues while taking the drug.
“My first surgery was in ’93. From that point forward—for my next nine procedures—I was prescribed opioids. Sometime in early 2000, around my second or third surgery, I started to experience an allergic reaction to that medication. I felt nauseous and my stomach hurt, and I developed an itching sensation and a rash. My body was…not a fan.”
He decided to find out why the drug was having the effects he was experiencing.
“When I first had surgery, I didn’t even know what an opioid was, let alone anything about the potential side effects. This experience really incentivized me to learn more about why that
was the case, and after talking with doctors, I became aware of the problems associated with opioids—their side effects and their addictive nature. At that time, though, that’s all they had for surgery. That was what you did.”Hill decided later to just avoid opioids altogether and found other ways to deal with pain. He did state that he relied on long-acting local anesthetics injected during surgery, which was a better option than him taking any chance of becoming addicted to the drug.
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