Foul Shots: Kevin Ware Returns to Louisville

Even if you’re not a college basketball fan, you’ve seen a video of Kevin Ware’s injury. During an Elite Eight game in the NCAA Tournament on March 31, Ware suffered a compound fracture of his right leg while attempting to block a 3-point shot. The bone poked out of his leg and was clearly visible to spectators — some of whom looked as if they had seen someone die.

Ware’s teammates at the University of Louisville went on to win the championship just more than a week after his injury. The diagnosis for Ware wasn’t actually as bad as it initially looked. A broken bone is easier to recover from than, say, a torn knee ligament. But the way the injury looked made it seem so much worse than it was.

Recovering from a catastrophic injury (and when I say catastrophic, I mean in the sports context; it’s not as if Ware fell from a high building) is an incredibly difficult thing to do. There’s obviously the physical aspect of recovery. Most athletes who suffer season-ending injuries undergo extensive physical therapy. Take it from someone who knows: physical therapy is not a good time.

But more important is the mental component of recovering from a severe injury. In Ware’s case, millions of people saw the injury happen. If you ask the common fan about Kevin Ware, the first thing they mention will be the injury. It’s all but guaranteed.

This just makes it more difficult for Ware. When rehabilitating a serious injury, you can begin to doubt yourself and even wonder if you’ll ever be the same. You get frustrated with how slow the process seems to be and just want to start playing again. You sit on the sidelines, watching your teammates play a game that, until recently, you played as well, without even thinking of injury. Athletes don’t play under the assumption that they’re going to tear their ACL making a sharp cut on the court or on the field, and if they do, they won’t last very long in their profession.

I’m not just imagining all this, I speak from experience. I had Tommy John Surgery on my elbow when I was 15, erasing my junior season of baseball. The rehabilitation process was (and remains) the most difficult time period of my life. Going through physical therapy for an entire calendar year wasn’t exactly how I intended to spend my time.

Obviously my injury was completely different from Ware’s. He’s been in the national spotlight ever since his injury. Personally, I’ve been waiting for his return; I’m a sucker for comeback stories. Ware does seem to be coping with the attention quite well, perhaps because not much is expected of him. Last season, Ware averaged 4.5 points in just over 16 minutes played per game.

The weight of expectations can be crushing when returning from an injury, though. Just ask Miami Heat center Greg Oden. Coming out of high school, Oden was one of the highest-touted prospects in the country. Thanks to the one-and-done rule (not what the rule’s actually called, but it’s so idiotic that I won’t even acknowledge its title) Oden played one year at The Ohio State University and dominated to the degree that the Portland Trail Blazers drafted him first overall in the 2007 NBA draft, one spot ahead of Kevin Durant.

Oden promptly injured his knee in the preseason, needing microfracture surgery that kept him out for what would’ve been his rookie season in the NBA. The anticipation for his return was tremendous. Trail Blazer fans saw Oden as their potential savior, a modern day Bill Walton sent from the college ranks to lead them to the NBA finals. The expectations began to weigh heavily on Oden and he reinjured himself less than a full month into his rookie season in 2008-09. Despite the pitfalls, there have been flashes of brilliance from Oden. That just makes it all the much more frustrating that he is, for some reason, incapable of staying on the court without injuring his knees.

It’s been a frustrating cycle of repeated injuries for Oden, from whom so much was expected. Thankfully, Ware doesn’t have the same expectations hanging above his head. Louisville is not a team that needs a savior. I think that he’ll be eased into action, earning a few minutes at a time during games for the time being. Eventually I hope Ware returns to the level he was at before, or even exceeds it. It’s a fantastic story, and one that you’ll hear if you watch Louisville on TV. It takes guts to recover from an injury as catastrophic and as public as Ware’s. But I think he’ll be fine. Ware’s resilience is admirable and his recovery is incredible.