Kevin Ware & The Bad Break Turned Good - Chris "Preach" Smith

Easter Sunday is wrought with the story of the ultimate sacrifice and resurrection
in regards to Jesus Christ. But no one could’ve expected the resurrection story that
took place this week, with its origin on a basketball court in Indianapolis that saw 
probably the most gruesome sports injury in recent years take place during the 
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game between The University of Louisville and
Duke University. Kevin Ware, a Louisville sophomore guard suffered that injury
and became the catalyst for the Cardinals’ blowout victory over the Blue Devils en
route to the Final Four in Atlanta. Ware’s injury was so horrific that CBS, in a move
questioned and praised, chose not to replay it for viewers who missed it. And now
Ware has had successful surgery and will travel to Atlanta to join his team there.
Resurrection. A bad break turned good for now.

I happened to catch the injury on video right after it happened, and no wonder 
CBS didn’t want to show a replay. The compound tibia fracture basically left Ware’s
broken bone exposed while he was in front of his own bench. There were reports
that a couple of his teammates vomited right there. It even brought his coach
Rick Pitino to tears. You don’t even really see that injury in football. Once I saw
it, I thought, he’s never gonna play again. And then I wondered about his athletic
scholarship. Injuries like this are why you see highly touted players become ‘one 
and done’. They do this because as NCAA student athletes, they won’t see a dime
of money their schools make through sports. And the NBA beckons with million 
dollar contracts and endorsment deals for the offing. If Ware wasn’t able to ever
play again, Louisville wasn’t entitled to uphold his scholarship, leaving the brunt
of his bills to his family. Despite what some pundits like Dick Vitale says about ‘the
credibility of the game’, it’s become apparent that colleges use student athletes 
to get over. And do so with corporate help; Louisville’s arena is known as the 
KFC Yum! Arena to go along with its football stadium named after Papa John’s 
Pizzeria. Even the coaches get over, despite recruiting student athletes with the
ideas of commitment. Look at the recent example of Steve Alford. He was the 
head coach of New Mexico’s basketball team who signed a 10 year contract worth
$20 million after the first game of the tourney and TEN DAYS LATER bolts for 
the open job at UCLA. Now he’s quibbling over paying New Mexico a million as
a buyout clause per his contract.


Remember the movie ‘The Program’, with the linebacker Alvin Mack riding
high until his injury? That final shot of him sitting at home with his leg in a
cast is haunting, and happens a lot. At this moment, Adidas and Louisville
have a t-shirt out entitled ‘Rise To The Occasion’ with Ware’s #5 on it. The
shirt goes for $24.99 retail and even though Louisville has waived royalties,
the school will still get money along with Adidas. Ware will see none of it. A
dirty shame since the feel-good story of Ware’s recovery from such an injury
is overshadowed because that injury doesn’t qualify him for the NCAA’s
Catastrophic Injury Insurance Policy. He’d have to have his leg amputated
or lose function in it for that to kick in. And that means all of the hospital costs
will be borne by Ware and his family, as Louisville reigns supreme as the
highest profitable college basketball team in the country for the second year
in a row nearing $29 million dollars. I’d like to think that with all this, there’d
be more of a push to pay these students athletes SOMETHING. College ball
has been racked with cheating scandals for decades. From Connie Hawkins
to the NYU team in the 1950’s to the Fab Five, these scandals came to bear
because colleges touted amateur integrity as their lockboxes filled up. The
sad thing is, it may take more injuries. Nerlens Noel was a star Kentucky
freshman whose own horrific knee injury knocked him out this season. The
difference between him and Ware is, Noel is still rated to be picked fourth in
the NBA Draft in June should he decide to leave early. Ware doesn’t have
that luxury.  

This is the risk student athletes, no matter the sport, take. Colleges have 
become corporate entities with athletic departments as development programs.
Sneaker companies rule. But for every superstar there’s about 20 who don’t
make that cut. And when graduation rates for athletes of color haven’t seen
much uptick according to studies, there are serious problems. It’s funny; when
you look at Ware’s official bio for Louisville, he states that Omar Epps would be
the choice to play him in a movie. Who was a major star of ‘The Program’?
Omar Epps. We can say that this is a bad break turned good for Ware.  For the
time being though, it may have turned out better for Louisville in the long run.
And we can only hope Ware won’t be the sadder part of the story.