Jones not alone in battle with leukemia
Other athletes with the disease provide support
AUSTIN — For any athlete, the body’s eventual deterioration is the most personal, traumatic betrayal. Some are able to hold it at bay longer than others, often through a combination of fanatical training, scrupulous preparation and sheer luck. Many are more unfortunate. They tear an ACL or suffer too many concussions and are forced away prematurely.
When that happens, they are left with questions of why and fantasies of what might have been.
Andrew Jones is dealing with his own betrayal now, one more insidious and devastating than a shredded ligament or broken bone. The 20-year-old University of Texas sophomore guard, a chiseled, exuberant picture of health and a future NBA prospect, was diagnosed with leukemia several weeks ago. It felt so random, so unfair.
Leah Vann, a former sports writer for The Daily Texan now with the Mason City Globe Gazette, heard the same crushing words from her doctor about seven years ago: “You have leukemia.”
She did what any sane person would do — she “lost it.” Pillows and tissues and a Chipotle bag flew around the room as Vann raged against life’s cruel unpredictability. ‘A trophy of pity’
She wanted Jones to know about the tantrum she threw as the words landed. She wanted him to know how defiant she felt in the moment, how she both blamed and sought comfort from a higher power, how vexed she grew when nurses forced her to transfer from bed to a wheelchair to move around the hospital.
So, she wrote a letter. A real letter, a vivid portrait of how her life transformed. She was an athlete before the diagnosis, a varsity track competitor and volleyball player. The cancer stripped those joys from her.
“I sat as a trophy of pity at a volleyball tournament, watching my team win and lose,” Vann wrote. “I analyzed how the game would’ve looked if they had been playing with me and not for me. When your teammates defeated No. 16 TCU in double overtime (on Jan. 10), I wonder if you felt the same.
“I cried. I picked up a volleyball and just held it. Just to feel it. Then someone came to shag it, and I threw it back just to test my physical strength. Athletes don’t like to show what they believe to be weakness, but feeling all these emotions meant I was passionate about the life I live.”
Nick Paquette, a guard at Division III SUNY New Paltz, had a message for Jones, too. He reached out to Yahoo Sports with a letter detailing his own struggle with leukemia.
“Knowing that another 20-year-old college sophomore would be embarking on a similar journey made me want to help,” Paquette wrote. “I certainly don’t have a potential NBA career riding on my recovery like you do, nor do I even know if we have exactly the same type of leukemia or not, but I’d like to think my story can provide you strength, inspiration and above all else hope.” A happy ending
Paquette was diagnosed on April 29, 2017. He was confused, terrified. At 20, Paquette felt bulletproof, like so many do. Like Jones probably did. That changed in an instant.
But Paquette’s determination never wavered, even as he remained bedridden for days, hooked up to a tangled mass of wires and subjected to rounds of chemotherapy. He was going to play again.
“Two weeks after I came home from the hospital, I found the strength to climb out of bed and shoot 10 free throws in the driveway while my dad rebounded for me,” Paquette wrote. “The next day I shot 20. Walks around the neighborhood turned into jogs. Sets of push-ups gradually gave way to lifting weights. By the middle of the summer, I played in my first pickup game.”
He was cleared to play in New Paltz’s season opener on Nov. 17. He scored 13 points in 28 minutes, just over six months after the initial diagnosis, and he has appeared in every game since.
That doesn’t mean Jones will be back on the court in burnt orange next season. No two cases are the same. But he has allies — Vann, Paquette, coach Shaka Smart, those who have donated more than $140,000 to Jones’ support fund — and hope.
Jones will have to be strong in this fight against his own body. But he won’t have to be alone.