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PHILADELPHIA - Todd MacCulloch tugged down the tube sock on his left foot and showed the floss-thin scar that starts near his ankle and curves around toward the bottom of his foot.
"That could be my last chance," MacCulloch said softly, tapping the damage. "I'm hopeful this will help me play again someday."
MacCulloch, a 7-foot center for the Philadelphia 76ers, hoped surgery would alleviate some of the problems associated with the mysterious genetic disorder that has kept him off the court for more than a year and has shown few signs of regressing.
"I'm trying not to be negative. I'm trying to think about the positives. It's certainly been a long time," said MacCulloch, who last played Feb. 2, 2003.
MacCulloch, 28, may have his career cut short because of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a genetic disorder that disrupts his balance and causes problems with his feet.
Two months ago, MacCulloch had surgery on his left foot. He said doctors told him a nerve in his lower leg had been compressed or damaged. The surgery cut through tissue to free up more room for the nerve to possibly recover and heal.
"Hopefully, now that it's free, that will lead to recovery," MacCulloch said. "Most people suffer with this for the rest of their life and never go back to how they were and that's frightening."
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While he was never one of the most talented big men in the game, MacCullouch was a great find by Larry Brown who's sense of humor was probably even better than his pass friendly hands. Reading about this, makes me really hope that he's closer to living a normal life than he was when he was first diagnosed with CMT. This article does a good job of telling how he's doing, and what he's thinking of, and it hints towards the possibility of some kind of settlement with the team in the future.
Now, what most Sixers fans are concerned about when it comes to MacCullouch is his contract that is currently eating up space in the salary cap. Petey was close to the truth of the rule, and Big Mac's contracts would've come off the books in two years had he retired after he was diagnosed with the disorder. Todd still wishes to play basketball, so I can't necessarily blame him for not wanting to give up on his pro career.
Just so everyone could see, I drudged up the information from Larry Coon's CBA site:
Quote:
There is one exception whereby a player can continue to receive his salary, but the salary is not included in the team's team salary. This is when a player is forced to retire for medical reasons and a league-appointed physician confirms that he is medically unfit to continue playing. There is a waiting period of two years (if the injury or illness occurred between January 1 and July 1) or until the second July 1 following the injury or illness (if it occurred between July 1 and January 1) before a team can apply for this salary cap relief. If the waiting period expires mid-season (on any date prior to the last day of the regular season), then his entire salary for that season is removed from the team's team salary. For example, Luc Longley suffered a career-ending injury in March 2001. In March 2003, the Knicks were allowed to remove his entire 02-03 salary from their books (and since the luxury tax is based on the team salary as of the last day of the regular season, the Knicks avoid paying any tax on Longley's salary). There is also some luxury tax relief associated with disabled players -- see question number 15 .
If a player retires, even for medical reasons, his team does not receive a salary cap exception to acquire a replacement player.
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So if Big Mac retires, we'd be able to "lose" the final year of his contract in 2007-2008 which is worth $7 million. With the current position the Sixers are in, I wouldn't be shocked that if Big Mac came to the conclusion that he could no longer play, that he would work out a buyout situation with the organization.