Kobe Blackmon was in a severe four-wheeler accident in May, but that hasn’t stopped him from wrecking havoc on the basketball court this winter.
The eighth grader from Dewey, Oklahoma lost function of his dominant right arm when he hit a tree with the vehicle at a friend’s house. According to Tulsa World, Blackmon suffered a major injury to the nerves and blood vessels in his brachial plexus.
He traveled to St. Louis in September to have a 14-hour surgery which involved transferring nerves from his ribs and legs to the plexus. Then he had another procedure six weeks later with the hopes that he will one day regain some movement. No one is sure how much function he will get back or when it will happen, but Blackmon isn’t parking himself on the couch as he waits.
To play basketball, he wears a harness so his right arm doesn’t flop all over the place. With his left, he has learned how to dribble and shoot.
“In that first game, I didn’t think he would put me in,” Kobe said of his coach. “I was really nervous, but then I got a couple of steals. I thought other teams might take it easy on me, but they don’t.”
Have a look at Blackmon’s story.
Being able to adapt quickly is a great life skill, and it looks like Blackmon already gets it.
