Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 4/3/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Praveen Sathianathan Players line up for a free throw during a wheelchair basketball invitational at Brookhaven on March 26.

Dallas Mavericks player Rusty Belknap glided across the court bouncing the basketball and then passed it to teammate Paul Schulte who then shot the ball and scored.

For Belknap, this game is just like any other he plays, but for some in the stands, this game may be quite different from what they are used to. Belknap and the other players in this game are in wheelchairs.

Wheelchair basketball, according to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, the governing body of the sport, started in 1946 by paralyzed veterans. According to the NWBA's Web site www.nwba.org the mission of the association is to provide people with permanent lower limb disabilities the opportunity to play, learn and compete in wheelchair basketball.

Today there are more than 185 teams in the United States, who play in six divisions: three men's and three women's.

They are sponsored by a professional sports team and wear the colors and uniform of the sponsored team.

Belknap said: "We're athletes, first, that are disabled. A lot of people think that we are all out of rehab and that's not true. The wheelchair is a tool not a hindrance."

The game featuring the Dallas Mavericks was one of seven games played at Brookhaven College as part of the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation/American Airlines Invitational.

The invitational, which was held March 24-26, featured Division I mens teams and was used as a seating event for the Division I national tournament in Lexington, Ky., on April 7-8. The other teams that played in the invitational were the Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns and the Toronto Raptors from Canada.

Dallas Mavericks Coach Doug Jones said: "The players can live in other cities and fly in for the games. Most players come from college programs, other than that, we have a draft process in the off-season.

"The players have to have some form of disability," Jones said. "Spinal cord injuries and double amputees are the most common individuals who join the team."

Meghan Schulte, the wife of a player said, "It's enough of a disability so they can't play on an able bodied team."

Continued...

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