| A shot glanced off the rim, bounced momentarily | | | | Vans are quickly filled with players, coaches, |
| toward the ceiling, then fell gently toward the floor. | | | | day-to-day chairs and specially designed basketball |
| From rim to hands, the rebound hung in the air for only | | | | chairs. |
| a moment, two seconds at the most. | | | | A good road trip, Thorpe called it. |
| As the basketball fell, the gym echoed. The squeak of | | | | Back at Western Wayne, 41-year-old Thorpe was a |
| rubber against hardwood mixed with the grind of metal | | | | wrestler and football player. Otto, 35, played football |
| against metal, and in the scramble for position, a | | | | and baseball at Lackawanna Trail. Cox was a |
| wheelchair flipped backward. A man who couldnt | | | | basketball player at Scranton Central. |
| stand on his own was left lying flat on his back, his legs | | | | Reynolds is the only one of the group who didnt play |
| still strapped to the chair. | | | | sports in high school. Now 47, he started playing |
| Next moment, a fast break was heading the other | | | | wheelchair basketball after a friend asked him to give |
| way. A referee walked next to the fallen player, but | | | | it a shot in the early 80s, a few years after his 1977 |
| barely glanced his direction and never offered so | | | | accident. |
| much as a hand. Only after a foul was called did the | | | | For Al-Nadi, wheelchair basketball isnt a return to the |
| action stop and two players wheeled down court to | | | | familiar or a taste of something new. |
| help their teammate back onto his wheels. | | | | Its the only life hes ever known. |
| Upright, the player never left the game, and players | | | | Born in Jordan in 1965, 41-year-old Al-Nadi was born |
| asking whether he was all right seemed to be doing so | | | | disabled. He can shuffle along on crutches, basically |
| simply out of courtesy. | | | | carrying himself with his upper body, but his legs wont |
| The game had to go on, just like everything else. | | | | support his weight on their own. |
| It had to go on for Tom Cox, who worked himself into | | | | As a kid, he learned to play handball, and as an adult, |
| a wheelchair when he was trying to work himself | | | | he finished a marathon with his hands bleeding at the |
| through college. | | | | finish. Hes played wheelchair basketball for San Diego |
| It had to go on for Jason Otto, who made the biggest | | | | City College and for the Jordanian national team. |
| mistake of his life, crashed his car and broke his back. | | | | Basically I felt that (disability) was the hand I got dealt |
| It had to go on for Kevin Reynolds, who was a | | | | and that the life I wanted to live was to be involved in |
| teenager working on a dairy farm when he was | | | | sports, Al-Nadi said. Thats the reason I drive all the |
| trapped beneath a fallen tree and confined to a seat | | | | way to Scranton. My motivation is its something I want |
| with tires. | | | | to do, something inside of me. |
| Some people can never deal with the accident, | | | | Competition |
| Reynolds said. And some people take it and move | | | | Twenty years ago, Thorpe was in a car that crashed |
| right on with it. | | | | into a telephone pole. The impact, and the fact he was |
| Wheelchair basketball has been part escape and part | | | | wearing a seat belt that only went across his lap, |
| continuation, part competition and part camaraderie. | | | | broke a vertebra in Thorpes back. |
| The Scranton Allied Forces have been common | | | | Thats the reason he felt no pain last year and initially |
| ground for six teammates from different cities and | | | | had no idea anything was wrong, when during a game |
| with varying degrees of disability. | | | | another chair jumped onto his own, hit his shin and |
| Its been common ground on which to gain a little extra | | | | broke his tibia and fibula. |
| traction. Common ground on which to keep moving | | | | Ive done football, wrestling and wheelchair basketball, |
| forward. | | | | Thorpe said. And its all the same. |
| Common ground on which its OK to fall, as long as | | | | Its fast paced, intense and sometimes brutal. Thumbs |
| you get back up. | | | | are busted, chairs are flipped and players who cant |
| Escape | | | | walk are sent tumbling to the ground. |
| Eighteen years old, working 16-hour shifts to make | | | | You never get used to that really, because you never |
| enough money so that he wouldnt have to work | | | | know, said Allied Forces coach Jim Batton, who is not |
| through college. | | | | disabled. Like in a football game, when someone goes |
| Coxs body was too weak to fight the spinal meningitis. | | | | down, you dont know how severe it is. |
| Twenty-one years old, driving drunk when his car | | | | Im still scared for them. Especially with six players, we |
| flipped and tossed him to the roadside. | | | | cant afford to lose one of them. |
| Otto was lucky to be alive. | | | | This is still a team that, first and foremost, wants to |
| Seventeen years old, cutting firewood along a creek | | | | win. They arent in the sport to play it safe. |
| to make a little extra money. | | | | Two younger players, 15-year-old Daniel Rivers of |
| Reynolds was pinned beneath a rolling pine tree. | | | | Waymart and 19-year-old Casey Erickson of Clarks |
| It took a few months to sink in that this is the way lifes | | | | Summit occasionally practice and play in home games |
| going to be from now on, Reynolds said. | | | | with the Allied Forces, but they dont travel with the |
| To hear the team tell it, its the sinking in part thats key. | | | | team. |
| There has to be some level of acceptance. Not | | | | I know everyone has good intentions and theyre |
| acceptance of limitations, only acceptance of reality. | | | | looking out for me, Rivers said. But its nice to do |
| No more denial. No more self-pity. No more asking the | | | | something without people saying, Slow down, oh my |
| world to stop so that someone can flip you upright. | | | | gosh, I cant believe hes doing that. |
| There are a lot of people in our area in wheelchairs | | | | Camaraderie |
| who just sit at home because, to them, their life is over, | | | | After intricate passing drills and full-court layup drills, |
| Cox said. | | | | practice came to a halt and Al-Nadi chased down a |
| He would know. Cox is 37, hes been paralyzed for 19 | | | | loose ball along the sideline. |
| years and he works at Allied Services, the Scranton | | | | Want to see wheelchair bowling? he asked, turning |
| rehabilitation center that sponsors the Allied Forces. | | | | back toward the court and rolling the ball toward his |
| Hes seen some patients give up, and hes seen some | | | | teammates. |
| others fight back. | | | | When the ball smacked squarely into Reynolds right |
| Teammate Sherri Ayers did both. | | | | wheel, Al-Nadi burst out laughing. |
| Through tennis leagues, bowling leagues and even a | | | | I think it helps to be around people who understand |
| professional softball league in New Jersey, 46-year-old | | | | what youre going through, he said later. You develop |
| Ayers spent two decades as an ultra-competitive, | | | | friendships and long-term relationships with these |
| able-bodied athlete. | | | | people. You do need that support. We might not like to |
| In 1998, though, reflex sympathetic dystrophy largely | | | | see it that way, but there is something to it. |
| cost her the use of her right leg. | | | | Its not all there is to it, but its part of it. |
| You figure its the end of your life, Ayers said. I was in | | | | Who else could relate to it other than guys going |
| total depression before I started this. | | | | through the same thing? Otto said. |
| That was before. This is now. | | | | When they travel and they travel often the Allied |
| Continuation | | | | Forces eat dinner together, play cards together and |
| The drive from her home in Effort takes Ayers an | | | | check into hotels together. They help one another |
| hour. She makes the trip every Wednesday, six | | | | remove hotel bathroom doors when the doorways |
| months a year, for practice at Johnson College. | | | | arent wide enough for the chairs. |
| If they did it year round and just had practice, Id still | | | | Its those chairs that make the team unique, but its |
| come every week, she said. | | | | hardly the chairs that define the players. Look past the |
| Reynolds and Qassem Al-Nadi drive to practice from | | | | metal and the wheels, and their game is more familiar |
| Binghamton, Lonnie Thorpe comes into town from | | | | than unusual. |
| Waymart and Otto arrives from Fleetville. Cox has by | | | | If anything, rather than being treated with more help, |
| far the shortest drive. He lives in Dickson City. | | | | we just want to be treated as equal, Cox said. |
| Games are on Saturdays. Most Mid Atlantic | | | | Everyone falls down at some point. The trick is to deal |
| Conference games are within a two-hour drive. | | | | with the fall, and find a way to get back up. |
| Tournaments range from Connecticut to Virginia. | | | | |