Kingston Flemings - Car Accident story when he was a kid

[Who]

An article from the Player's Tribune

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/kingston-flemings-nba-draft-basketball-houston-cougars

It's me getting run over by an SUV when I was four years old.

I can remember the accident, but I was too little to remember some specific details, so what I'm able to tell you about it mostly comes from what my parents have told me. I was with my family at my aunt's house, outside playing with my cousin. My aunt lived on a cul-de-sac, and there aren't too many cars that come through, so we were throwing this little rubber ball to one another across the street. At one point, I ran to get the ball, and there were two cars parked side-by-side on the street and ... I couldn't see that one of them was backing up right then. A neighbor told my mom at the time that he was out front and saw it all happening almost like it was in slow motion. He was trying to signal to the driver to stop in time. But ...

I ended up running into the back door of this big Nissan Armada as it was moving, falling on my butt, and then ... the back tire ran over my body, basically. Like right at hip level. All the kids playing outside ran in the house screaming and yelling for help. And we have a really big family, so my dad and mom, they were kind of used to hearing kids saying that something was ?AN EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!? and then it being nothing, but this time it was like .... No. No! No!! For real!!! Help!!!! Kingston got run over.

My uncle scooped me up and immediately passed me to my dad. Apparently I wasn't crying, I was just kind of like, "Ooooooh ... Oooooh" Just moaning, I guess. My parents both say the first thing they remember seeing were these huge tire treads on my pants. And the tracks were actually embedded into my hip, like into my skin, pretty much the entire width of my body. After seeing that, as my mom tells it, "Everyone went into Go Mode."

They raced me to the children's hospital, and when the doctors initially took a look at me and saw that my belly was stretched out and had gotten really big, they were worried about internal injuries and bleeding. They told my folks that they weren't equipped to handle the level of trauma they were seeing, so I had to be transferred to a Level 1 trauma hospital, and I guess that whole process took a few hours. I can't imagine how worried my parents were, and how stressful it all was. In situations like that, obviously ... every second counts. My mom and dad didn't know if I had broken bones, or internal bleeding, or if I was ever going to be the same.

God that must have been terrifying

Eventually the doctors were able to do a much more comprehensive examination and told my parents that when the tire rolled over my body, because I was so young at the time, and my bones were still so flexible, it actually bent some of the bones rather than breaking them. My bones weren?t hard enough to break yet. So, in that way it was actually a blessing how young I was.

That is crazy. Amazing.

Hearing that story you would wonder how the heck he is able to be an NBA player. To survive that. To maintain his physical function & athleticism. To grow into what he is today. About to become a top 10 NBA draft pick.

Incredible.

I did have a small hip fracture, and a small puncture on my spleen, though. My dad remembers how the doctors were actually worried most about toxicity and potential infections caused by the internal trauma. But the worst part for me, definitely - and this part I do remember - the worst part by far was the road rash.

It?s a nasty burn on your skin that happens if you get dragged on the pavement. With me, I had that pretty much the entire length of my thigh, and then all the way across my hips. Even just moving a tiny bit would be agonizing. I ended up in the pediatric ICU for a day and a half, and then spent another day and a half recovering in the general pediatric unit. My parents talk about how at one point the doctor treating me was like: "He can walk. I promise you. It?s just super painful for him to do it."

After I fought through that and was able to take a few steps, they sent me home.

How it impacted him

I don't really think about that accident too much anymore, but if you talk to my mom, she'll absolutely tell you that the whole experience played a massive role in shaping the person I am today.

Apparently, before that, I was a pretty shy little kid. Didn't talk much, didn't play a ton of sports. Just kind of quiet and chill. Then I get backed over by a car, and, to hear my mom tell it - it was almost like something out of a superhero comic book, where something dramatic happens to a person and they go through this huge transformation. 

My mom says that after the accident, even if I didn't fully know it, I actually started acting like ... Life is short. It was like: Don't take anything for granted. Don't sit back and let life pass you by. So now, all of a sudden, I'm wanting to play every sport imaginable, and doing and saying everything I can. 

I don't know about all that, but I will say there's no doubt in my mind that the accident taught me a ton about how you need to respond to adversity, and adapt to whatever circumstances you?re faced with. I've absolutely made that one of my hallmarks on the basketball court. One of my biggest strengths as a player is definitely my adaptability. It's something I pride myself in.

I absolutely know that time is precious. (I had the tire marks to prove it!) So I?m not coming to the NBA to chill.