Leeper rocks and NWBA rolls NBA All-Star Week

Charlotte (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - It was brutally cold in New York City last week but nothing frosted the east coast as much as the law of the West ruled once again taking the honors in the NBA/NWBA All-Star Wheelchair Classic with a 49-41 win. It marked the 10th straight victory for those closer to the Pacific side of the country.

It wasn't easy. The East led 21-19 at halftime behind the scoring of New York Rolling Knicks and Canadian national team player David Eng, who had 15 of his game-high 25 points in the first two quarters. His 10 rebounds made him one of three players to register a double-double in the game. Unfortunately, the other two played for the West - Tyrone Griner of the Phoenix Banner Wheelchair Suns (12 points and 11 rebounds) and the Golden State Road Warriors's Marcus Oden (12 and 10).

Once again, David Stern, now the NBA's Commissioner Emeritus, was in attendance for the game, as he has been throughout its 17 renditions since the event's debut in 1998, when the NBA All-Star Game was last held in New York.

NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Mutombo, Hall of Famers George Gervin and Robert Parish, NBA Cares Ambassador and former USA Olympic Team player Ruth Riley and San Antonio Stars Center Jayne Appel served as honorary coaches for the game.

Also on hand were Kathy Behrens, the NBA's President of Social Responsibility & Player Programs, and Todd Jacobson, the Senior Vice-President, Social Responsibility, both of whom have been leading the NBA's community initiatives for more than a decade.

That has included the annual wheelchair basketball clinic which the NWBA All-Stars hold in the host city as part of the All-Star Week festivities. This time the clinic was scheduled before the visiting athletes got to town and was manned by local NWBA team players, including Patrick Anderson who joined Eng in leading the Rolling Knicks to their first NWBA title last season.

The importance and impact of the clinic at the Chelsea Recreation Center - which was part of the NBA Cares' season-long effort to reach a million school children throughout New York City - was featured in a Wall Street Journal blog.

"The single biggest thing getting over my accident was getting physically active," Anderson told the WSJ. "It would kill me to watch my friends play hockey. Basketball gave me wings. It was like being able to breathe again."

It also helped Canada win three gold and one silver medal in the last four Paralympic Games and would certainly help the East break the reign of the West if Anderson's schedule works with next year's game in Toronto.

Then came the Celebrity Game which, for the first time, featured a Paralympian in sprinter Blake Leeper. The 25-year-old Tennessee native, who was born with congenital birth defects affecting both legs below the knee and has worn prosthetics since, credits basketball for his success on the track.

"I wouldn't be able to run track if I didn't play basketball," said Leeper, who started shooting hoops when he was four years old. He kept playing on up through his junior year at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee.

That success on the track includes 400-meter silver and 200-meter bronze medals at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, and one gold and four silver medals in IPC (International Paralympic Competitions) World Championship competitions.

And it came full circle when it put him on the court for the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at Madison Square Garden last weekend.

The venue - the first time that the celebrity game was played in an NBA arena, let alone The Garden - had Leeper in awe.

"It was like a dream come true. I couldn't believe it myself. It was awesome, like I was in a movie," he said.

Leeper played for the East team which was led by comedian, film star and three-time celebrity game MVP Kevin Hart. They were joined by rap star Common, actor Michael Rappaport, former New York Knicks guard Allan Houston and WNBA star Tina Charles. It was coached by Knicks All-Star Carmelo Anthony.

He compared the atmosphere of the sold-out Garden to the energy of 80,000 people in the London Olympic Stadium and said that energized him.

"It's a celebrity All-Star Game but I'm a high competitor and it was a chance for me to show the world what I can do so I took the opportunity and I played hard."

And he did. While that energy can overwhelm most people, especially those trying to shoot in a big venue for the first time, Leeper dialed it in and hit his first shot, an NBA range three-pointer. He later told me it was his first time shooting from that distance. But he was focused and felt that it was a shot at the general perceptions of disability.

"People were probably thinking there's no way he can make this but I stepped into it and knocked it down."

Leeper only took two other shots, missing both, but grabbed three rebounds and played solid team ball in his 14 minutes on the court. He did what he came to do which is what he's always done and that is to prove people wrong about himself and others who have a disability.

To some it might have just been a three-point shot, but for Leeper it was a milestone earned as result of all his hard work.

"Playing sports was always a way to show the community that I wasn't any different. That's what I fought for; that's what I played for. Every suicide [drill], every extra run even though I came in last, every time I battled in practice, my whole journey was let go in that three."

And he got to play in the Garden. How cool is that.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

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