Kevin Ware’s Injury and the Emotions of Sports

When the sophomore’s leg buckled and snapped in half the tough cringed, the weak hearted averted their eyes, and the Cardinals of Louisville cried for their fallen teammate.

Chane Behanan, Russ Smith, and Peyton Siva collapsed to the court in despair at the sight of Kevin Ware’s obliterated leg. They saw what happened, where Ware’s leg was, and the pain was evident on the sophomore’s face.

Ware’s injury itself happened on one of basketball’s most common defensive plays. With six minutes and 41 seconds to go in the first half Ware rotated to the wing too late and made the effort to block the wing three from Duke.

The subsequent awkward landing and leg separation turned the stomach of every fan in the stadium and millions more watching TV.

Even the normally stoic Rick Pitino shed a few tears for his fallen player. And the coach knew that his team would either rally around the injury or be ripped apart by sadness.

Yet before Ware was carted off the court, he made sure to channel the emotions in a certain direction. Behanan told the New York Times that Ware told his teammates “Win it for me, y’all. I’m good. I’m going to get surgery and be back at it like I never left.”

From that moment on the Blue Devils had no chance of going down to Georgia.

A debilitating injury to a player, regardless of the sport, becomes a test of team chemistry. The teams that care for each other, like Ware’s teammates care for him, find an inner strength reserved for the most turbulent times.

Teams that fail their chemistry test are ripped apart by the emotions of the moment. They try to rally together, but their love falls flat of expectations because it was not strong enough to begin with.

In the case of the Cardinals, they channeled their emotions into adrenaline and ran all over Duke. Smith and Siva, two players who were already quick, ran even faster. Gorgui Dieng swatted away shots with the fervor of Bill Russell.

And Pitino, the same coach who ended up on the wrong end of the Christian Laettner game, made every correct decision throughout the second half.

An early 22-6 in the entire second half felt as if it spanned the entire game. Louisville won 85-63 and secured their second trip to the Final Four in two years; but that was not the chief concern of those who banished the Blue Devils.

After a brief post game interview on CBS Siva came over and gave his coach a hug. The point guard was smiling at the camera and letting everyone watching know who his coach was.

That kind of honest affection between human beings is the reason Louisville is heading to Atlanta to take on Wichita State. While the Cardinals may be without Kevin Ware on the court he is undoubtedly in the hearts of everyone on the roster.

That love is how Louisville passed their team chemistry test with a perfect score.