Citizen Akoy~Basketball and the Making of a South Sudanese American by Steve Marantz

Author:Steve Marantz [Marantz, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC007000 Social Science / Emigration & Immigration, SPO004000 Sports & Recreation / Basketball, SOC001000 Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
ISBN: 9781496203229
Goodreads: 39859746
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2019-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Thus did Akoy live-tweet his arthroscopic knee surgery at Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital. It is believed to be the first live-tweet by a patient in surgery in Nebraska and possibly anywhere.

After his surgery Akoy wrote the obvious: “Who knew I could be so addicted to twitter #obsession.” Post-operative care seemed to suit him:

The nurse that’s taking care of me is #fineeeee

Mmmmm she is finnnee

Let the drugged up tweets begin

I love morphine

Local media were on the story by the next day. Behrens said that Akoy’s right knee had been “really bothering him” for a couple of weeks and that doctors had told Akoy he would be ready to play in the state tournament and possibly in the districts. Typically meniscus surgery requires six to eight weeks of rest and rehab before strenuous exercise. The notion that Akoy could play in the districts in a week and at state in two and a half weeks defied medicine and perhaps common sense. “But no, I’m not going to miss state!” he wrote. “Well hopefully not!”

Rehab began, and Akoy wrote, “I hate physical therapy.” He sat out the district semifinal against 4-19 Omaha Northwest, and the expected cakewalk turned into a nail biter. At halftime he lit into his teammates. “Some of the words shouldn’t be put in the paper,” he told McKewon. Central pulled out its tightest game of the season, 61–51, and punctuated Akoy’s value. Ten days after surgery he was on the floor for the district final against Kearney. In a limited role he scored 5 points as Central kept Kearney off the scoreboard until the second quarter on the way to a 59–36 win. The day after he wrote, “So I tried to play last night and I sprained my ankle! #badluck. I’m going straight back to my crutches!!!”

Nineteen days after surgery Akoy was at the Devaney Center in Lincoln for the state quarterfinal. “Man I’m hyped,” he wrote. “I feel like we shouldn’t have school during the state tournament!” Central was 27-0 and was ranked twenty-ninth nationally by MaxPreps.com and thirty-seventh by ESPN, with an average margin of victory of 25.5 points. Not only were the Eagles good, they were colorful. As McKewon wrote in the article mentioned above, the team “is full of distinct personalities. They’ll gesture with Behrens on the court—or even have an animated conversation. Before tip-off, they chant and dance in a circle. Aside from Thurman—who sports Central purple Nikes—they wear a whole variety of shoe colors. A couple wear pink Hello Kitty socks.”

In pursuit of a perfect record Central sought a place among Nebraska’s all-time best, which included the unbeaten squads of Millard South (1989) and Omaha South (1960), as well as Central’s 1975 team, which had a single loss. A national schedule might have catapulted the Eagles into an ultra-elite that included the 2003 team of St. Vincent–St. Mary (Akron) with LeBron James; the 1989 team of St. Anthony (Jersey City NJ) with Bobby Hurley; the 1983 team of Dunbar (Baltimore) with Reggie Williams,

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