In a recent phone call to my father who lives in western kentucky ( I live out of state), he related to me something that happened at the Marshall Co. Hoopfest that should have been shown on ESPN. I will post this as it was told to me.

During halftime of one of the games, they randomly selected one of the crowd to come and make 4 shots in a row for 1000.00 (lay-up, free throw, 3 pointer, and half court). The young man whose name was called happened to be in a wheelchair. So, they decided to give him the option of choosing any two people in the crowd to shoot the last three shots, but only if he could make the lay-up.

The young man agreed and then promptly made the lay-up. Then he chose Rex Chapman to shoot the free throw and the 3 pointer, but not the half court shot. He wanted his best buddy to shoot that one.

So, King Rex swished the free throw. He stepped back past the three point line and let that one go. It rolled all the way around the rim... and fell in. The crowd is really buzzing at this point. His best friend (who is also physically challenged) went to half court to attempt the shot. My father said, "He knocked the bottom out of it". The gym exploded!

Here is the best part of the story. They went to the young man in the wheel chair to count him out one thousand dollars, but he stopped them. He instructed them that he would only take five hundred, and the other five hundred would go to his best friend. Now that is a great story!

 

This is strictly a second hand account, and if any details are incorrect, please feel free to correct them.

Here is an article on ESPN and there is also a video somewhere. It was Jeff Shepherd not Sexy Rexy and a few other details are off, but still a great story.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/081209

Here's a video of Gameday shooting 3s.

 

Here's a video of Gameday shooting 3s.

 

 

They better ice his elbow after that display. Wow, great to read and see stories like this.

Great story

Awesome story.

Thanks for helping to get the facts straight. It makes me wonder... did he refuse to take all of the money?

This is a very good story.

'Gameday' is a great example of someone with disabilities who has a positive outlook on his life. I had the pleasure of talking to him at the North Laurel/South Laurel basketball game and he hit several midcourt shots there as well as one backwards. Shepherd was with Gameday and his pastor at that game. Terrific young man. He was actually interviewed at halftime of the NL/SL game and it is online for free on demand viewing.

 

The best part about Gameday is that he is a genuine human being. When he hit the half court shots at the NL/SL game, it was the only time that both student sections cheered in unison. And they didn't just cheer, ... they went nuts.

Awesome story.

What a great story every high school coach should show this to his players that kid is a team player.