The five star recruit scored his first point since returning to the team after a year long battle with Leukemia.
Sports has a way of uniting people from all backgrounds, especially when it comes to celebrating or honoring individuals who have suffered and are now succeeding.
Andrew Jones is one of those individuals. The five star recruit for the Texas Longhorns’ men’s basketball team was diagnosed with Leukemia last January, and battled with the disease this entire year, even transferring to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, which ended up significantly reducing the time of his treatment program. While he was receiving treatment, he also continued to hit the books, taking online classes in the summer.
Last night, after months of hard work, Jones returned to the team and scored his first point. Needless to say, fans were ecstatic.
Longhorn Network on Twitter
What a scene: Andrew’s first bucket for Texas since his leukemia diagnosis and the crowd loves it. https://t.co/k7aPmlomda
“It’s great to see Andrew out on the court,” said Longhorn head coach Shaka Smart. “I loved the way the crowd and everyone in the building reacted to him going in the game.”
“Only the strong survive, and that’s been something that I’ve lived by these last couple months,” said Jones before the season.
“It’s a choice whether if you want to just continue to go on and fight through adversity, or you can just sit there and let it take over you.”
Jones definitely wasn’t sitting around, taking on both his treatments and school, head on.
The inspirational player will leave the team temporarily on December 10th for another round of chemotherapy, but we all know he’ll take that treatment on just as hard as he has before. Best of luck Andrew!
