Shipp’s on Course : Returning to Court Will Be More Than Measure of Success

When the orthopedic surgeon emerged from surgery and gave Rod Baker an assessment of Tchaka Shipp’s slim chances of playing basketball again, the relieved UC Irvine coach knew Shipp had already made a lot of progress toward recovery.

He was in a coma, but given the circumstances of the car accident that nearly ended his life a few hours earlier, anything that included heartbeat and breathing was a positive.

Weeks later, when Shipp was asked to read the paramedic’s medical report by a cognitive therapist, he almost choked on the words: “No pulse. No heartbeat.”

Shipp’s head had repeatedly rebounded off an Irvine street in the early hours of July 19, 1994, when the rented convertible he was driving flipped after he fell asleep at the wheel. Teammate Kevin Simmons escaped with cuts and bruises, but Shipp remained in a coma for nine days after suffering a badly bruised and swollen brain, torn ligaments and muscles above his left knee and a severed tendon and compound fracture of his right index finger.

Sometime during the first half of Saturday’s game against Eastern Washington, however--barring any serious breakdowns on his finals this week--Shipp, in his sparkling white Anteater uniform, will squat in front of the scorer’s table and then step on the Bren Center floor and play college basketball again.

What will Baker be feeling?

“I’ll be real happy for him because everything that’s happened from that awful moment to right now is because of what he’s done,” he said. “I don’t know where he got the patience, the strength and the tenacity to be able to get to this point, but somehow he has reached it.

“That first rebound, the first basket, they’ll be very special moments because he’ll be back and contributing.”

And what will Shipp be feeling?

“Really, you know what will be on my mind? I’ll be thinking, ‘Now it’s time to prove to everyone that I can play, that I’m still able to do the things I used to do.’

“But I’m not going to worry too much about it. I want to do good and if I worry, I won’t. A positive approach always helps. I’ll just go at it head first. It’s like bungee jumping. If my rubber band pops, I’m dead. If not, I’m coming back up safely.

“I look at it as just another little hump to get over and, since the accident, I’ve had a whole lot of humps to get over.”

Obviously, Shipp is not short on perspective these days. He picked it up in the hardest of ways, of course, but he still downplays the effect of the accident on his psyche.

“People don’t understand that I was never down,” he said. “I never doubted that I would come back and play. Never. See, I was asleep for so long, and then when I woke up, I was just beyond the beyond mentally for a long time. So I still can’t grasp what I’ve been through.

“What Coach Baker saw of me that first day, I can’t grasp that. I mean when I first saw the picture of the car, I started laughing. Man, that car was completely totaled. Somehow I survived and Kevin was barely hurt.”

Don’t be fooled into thinking that merely making an appearance, playing a few minutes here and there, will be enough for Shipp. A 6-foot-8 forward who averaged three points, three rebounds and 13 minutes in his second year at Seton Hall before transferring to Irvine, he has much loftier goals.

“I can’t remember exactly where I was at [as a player], to be honest,” he said, “but I’m still working hard as I can to be even more than I can be. I want to get to the plateau where I was, and then go higher than that.”

Baker figures to ease Shipp back into the mix, but he has no set plan. He has attempted to treat Shipp the same as every other member of the team during practice, aside from an occasional joking reference such as, “Oh yeah, you were in that accident, weren’t you?” when Shipp messes up.

“Tchaka wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said, “and, really, I think it’s the best way. I think he’s comfortable with the fact that something happened and that he’s coming back from it.

“He’s never backed away from any situation and now he’s ready to play again. He understands what we’re doing. He’ll get in the game and if he’s got 30 minutes in him, we’ll take it.

“Seriously, though, he’ll be so sky-high, so pumped up, that alone will figure to take something out of him. The best part is he’s not coming in thinking he’s got to save us. He just wants to be a part of it and anything we get from him will be a bonus.”

Shipp, however, is clearly unsatisfied with aspects of his physical condition. The long layoff took a toll on the spring in his leg muscles, he still can’t make a fist with his right hand, and he isn’t in the kind of aerobic shape he’d like.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve witnessed a whole lot of improvement,” he said, “especially in my hand. I’m catching the ball, maybe not like I always could, but I’m catching it to the point where I usually do something good with it. My hand-eye coordination is not 100% yet either, but I think I’m catching the ball much better than people thought I would.

“I can grab the ball, hold it, dunk, shoot, all that, but my legs aren’t as strong as I’d like and I’m only good for a solid seven to eight minutes straight in a game situation.

“It’s a starting point, but it ain’t good enough, not good enough at all.”

All eyes, even those blurred by tears, will be on Shipp Saturday in the Bren Center. But Shipp’s focus lately has been on Baker and his best friend, Simmons.

He sat on a sofa in Irvine’s Crawford Hall athletic administration building recently and asked a writer a favor.

“I’d like to publicly apologize to Coach Baker and Kevin,” he said. “I put them through some real emotional havoc. I came out here as a guy who was projected to be a pretty good player and then pow! , the next morning you wake up and the guy’s almost dead.

“I put them through a lot of stress. Coach Baker had to call my mother that day and he didn’t know what to say. You know how hard that must have been for him. And Kevin, man, look at what he’s done, [Big West] freshman of the year last season, and I almost killed him just because I was tired and fell asleep.

“I want them to know I’m really sorry.”

Saturday, when he runs down the floor and battles for position underneath the basket for the first time in two years, all will be forgiven.

“Just seeing him out there is going to make everybody feel great,” Simmons said, smiling. “It’s going to be great to see, great.”