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