[Sportsandrec] Blind Basketball

[David B Andrews]

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Updated: March 11, 9:24 AM ET
Life of Reilly
By Rick Reilly
ESPN The Magazine



Matt Steven is blind, but that didn't stop him from being a hoops hero.


A few seconds left. The game teeters on these two free throws. The 
shooter gulps. The packed gym goes silent, save for the tapping of a 
white cane on the back of the rim. That's right. The shooter's 
brother is under the hoop, rapping a cane on the rim. That's because 
the shooter, Matt Steven, is blind.
So why is a blind kid in a competitive CYO game for sighted high 
schoolers in Upper Darby, Pa.? Because he doesn't like to miss 
anything -- especially free throws.
Matt, a senior, had been on the St. Laurence CYO team for a year and 
never played in a game -- never expected to. "He just likes being on 
the team," says Matt's brother and coach, Joe. Matt shoots free 
throws every practice, though, making about half. And that's what 
gave Joe a crazy, unthinkable, wonderful idea.
Before a charity tourney this past February, Joe asked the other 
teams if Matt could shoot all of St. Laurence's free throws. 
Amazingly, they agreed. So did the refs. A blind kid was going to be 
his team's designated shooter. Hey, it's still better than Shaq.
Did that make Matt nervous? "Nah," he says. "I shoot 'em all the time!"
The first game, Matt came in and -- to the crowd's shock -- made his 
first two. He was escorted back to the bench, where he grinned as if 
he had just kissed the head cheerleader. He was 4-for-8 that day.
Matt doesn't talk much -- he has a stutter -- so when Joe got home 
late after the game, their mom, Joan, asked, "Any idea why Matt's 
been smiling all night?"
"Oh yeah," Joe yawned. "He shot all our free throws tonight. Going to 
tomorrow night, too."
Joan about dropped the spaghetti. Does she like it when Matt rides a 
bike? Ice-skates? Plays soccer? Sort of. She also dreads the day he 
comes home hurting.
But Matt already knows what it's like to be hurting. Hurting is being 
born with two permanently detached retinas. Hurting is having your 
left eye removed in the fifth grade and the right in the sixth. 
Hurting is when they send you to a high school for the blind even 
though the last thing you want is to be around only other blind kids. 
Matt wants to be around other kids. He aches to be treated normal. 
Not "He does so great for a blind kid!" Just normal.
That's why the free throws meant so much. He'd begged his parents to 
let him transfer to a regular school -- Monsignor Bonner. And he'd 
begged his brother to let him join his friends on the CYO team. And 
then, for the first time in his life, he was going to be one of them.
Which brings us to Matt's moment in that second game. He'd missed his 
first six free throws, and St. Laurence was down eight to St. 
Philomena. Then a full-court press pulled the team to within one with 
10 seconds left. That's when St. Laurence's best shooter -- 6'4" 
senior Ryan Haley -- was fouled in the lane. Surely, with the game on 
the line, the team stud would shoot his own free throws, right?
Up in the stands, Matt's mom was hoping: Please don't make him shoot these.
And Haley really was going to shoot them, until he looked over at 
Matt on the bench. "And I thought, He comes to every game, he never 
misses a practice, he cheers us on. He deserves a shot. I mean, it's 
everyone's dream to make those shots."
So out comes Matt. And for the first time, the St. Phil fans aren't 
rooting for him. In fact, they look like they'd prefer that he shoot 
straight into the hot dog table. "That might have been the best 
moment of all for Matt," recalls Joe. "For once, he was just normal."
Now the ball bounces under Matt's hand. Now the picture shakes in 
Mom's viewfinder. Now the rim pings from the cane.
Matt lets go. Off the backboard and through. Tie game. Crowd goes 
berserk. Says Joe: "I think it helped that he's blind. He couldn't 
see the crowd, the scoreboard, his teammates' faces."
The crowd stills again. Dribble. Tap. Shoot. Bank. Swish! Up by one. 
The gym windows nearly break.
St. Phil's players forget to give Matt time to get off the court. 
They race the ball up. Nine guys are running around Matt, who's 
trying to find a way to the bench. Make that 10, since Ryan's already 
off the bench and pressing. Make that 11, since Joe -- tears in his 
eyes -- is trying to get to Matt. Chaos. Joy. Wonder.
St. Phil's desperate shot misses. Game over.
Since then, Matt's life has gone all kinds of crazy, unthinkably 
wonderful. His teammates call him Shooter. A girl says she heard all 
about him. He's even thinking about asking somebody to prom.
I hope she says yes. Best blind date of her life.
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