Wayman Tisdale can laugh about it all now.
In fact, Tisdale is laughing at the opening of his new album, the jazz bassist and former NBA player sending a sunny signal to listeners that he has weathered the darkest storm in a mostly cloudless existence.
"When life tries to get you down," Tisdale triumphantly declares on the record, his tone reassuring, "it's the perfect time for a rebound."
Tisdale's mood wasn't so light 16 months ago.
Living at the time in Calabasas, the three-time Oklahoma All-American, 1984 Olympic gold medalist and 12-year NBA veteran was making his way downstairs in the middle of the night when he heard something snap.
It was his right leg.
The 6-foot-9 former power forward, who says he never suffered a broken bone in college or during an NBA career in which he averaged 15 points and six rebounds, had not tripped or fallen, but he ended up gently settling onto his backside. Sitting there on the stairs, he says, he wondered how his leg could break so easily.
Two months and countless tests later he had his answer: bone cancer. Doctors told him a cancerous cyst below his right knee had caused the injury.
"When I first heard," Tisdale, 43, says of his initial reaction to the cancer diagnosis, "I reflected back on my life and thought, 'I had a great life, I had a great time, I did a lot.' I lived two careers that most people only dream of."
Indeed, two years before retiring from the NBA in 1997 -- the No. 2 pick in the 1985 draft played for the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns -- Tisdale released his debut album, "Power Forward." It made its way into the top 10 on Billboard magazine's top contemporary jazz albums chart.
Six more charting albums have followed -- "Rebound," his latest, is due in stores Tuesday -- as Tisdale has segued seamlessly from one enviable career to another while also bringing up three daughters and a son with wife Regina.
So, cancer threw him.
"It's a horrible thing," Tisdale notes, his right leg propped on a footstool a few hours before a recent show in Newport Beach. "But you know what? After being told and after learning so much about the research that's going on, it actually was enlightening. It definitely was encouraging. . . .
"When they told me what I had to go through to get well, the approach I took was, 'Let's do it.' Because of basketball, I wasn't no stranger to battles, I wasn't no stranger to hard work, I wasn't no stranger to pain."
