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