DETROIT – He served as Detroit mayor from 2009-2013 and played for the Pistons from 1966-1975. With most of his life in a high profile public position you might think you know everything about Dave Bing. There's just one big secret he hoped no one would find out until now.
"I'm blind in one eye," said Bing in an exclusive sit down interview with Local 4's Evrod Cassimy. "All I can see is light out of the eye. I can't make anything out."
The former mayor managed a successful career not only in office but also on the basketball court with only one good eye. It all started when he was a kid.
"I had an accident when I was five years old," he explained. "I was playing a game and fell on a nail and it hit me on the eye. We were a pretty poor family so you know, the insurance wasn't there to take me to the hospital. So the eye healed on its own and I've had blurred vision since I was five years old."
Growing up playing baseball and then basketball was a challenge.
"All I can see is light out of the eye. I can't make anything out," he added.
But he never wanted anyone to know, especially his opponents when he played professional ball.
"I didn't want anybody to feel sorry for me number one. And I was a competitor. I wasn't about to let my opponents know that I had this injury because they would take advantage of it and so I just kept it quiet. I didn't talk about it. When I had to go take eye tests sometimes I cheated because I would memorize some of the letters and so some of the doctors didn't know really."
And no one really suspected anything...except for one player.
"One of my teammates noticed. 'You don't see too well out of your left eye because I was open and you didn't give me the ball!' I just laughed! Ha! Ha! I never said anything to him I just laughed!" Bing added.
And he's still laughing after 12 years as a professional athlete, 29 years as a businessman, four and a half years as mayor and almost one year as a the head of the Bing Youth Institute. He's using his story to show Detroit young men there's nothing they can't do.
"A lot of us like to make excuses for failure. When you make an excuse you're usually going to fail. I want these young men to know because you're black, because you're poor, because you got a public school education are no excuses to fail. You can success with all of that baggage."
For more information about the Bing Youth Institute, please visit: http://www.bingyouthinstitute.org/home/