The 7-foot-1 freshman continues to thrive and pursue his NBA dreams thanks to the quick action of USC coaches and trainers after his medical scare in July.
LOS ANGELES — As USC’s players walked around the perimeter of the Galen Center court, shaking hands with fans, everyone wanted a little extra time with a player who had not recorded a single stat.
“That hug was a moment for us,” Vincent Sr. added. “We all told him, ‘We told you it was going to happen one day.’ We thank God for everything. It was a moment.”A collective memory can be a tricky thing to get straight. Especially after a traumatic situation, when adrenaline spikes and details begin to blur together. But these are the generally accepted facts of July 1.
Enfield dribbled a ball while speaking to Iwuchukwu, who was seated with a cup of water on USC’s bench. The freshman had started to feel dizzy soon after sitting down. When he began to shake, even Mobley thought Iwuchukwu was simply goofing around. Mobley helped move Iwuchukwu into a laying position on the Galen sideline. Enfield and graduate manager Jack Gentry rushed to retrieve the automated external defibrillator from the wall in the tunnel leading to the locker room. Director of basketball operations Michael Swets pressed the silver button on an emergency call box outside the locker room, connecting him to university emergency services. Meanwhile, strength coach Kurtis Shultz called 911 as a backup.
“I was just hitting him, yelling at him, ‘Vince don’t leave me.’ I don’t know what I was saying,” Mobley said. “I was like, ‘Stay awake,’ shaking him, tapping him. You could tell that he was kind of hearing me but he was like trapped in a box.”“I felt like I was in deep slumber, in a void. Things in that void, I can’t really describe but it was definitely something. When I was starting to get back into consciousness, I was starting to hear Mobley’s voice,” Iwuchukwu said.
“He says, ‘You can’t hear the ambulance?’ I said, ‘I can hear the ambulance but the ambulance might be passing by or what,’” Anastecia recounted. “And then I guess one of the paramedics took the phone from him.” As Iwuchukwu stayed at Cedars-Sinai for four days, doctors ran tests. They determined he had suffered cardiac arrest, but could not find a cause. An idiopathic, freak event.
But when his family moved to Texas, his new school did not have a soccer team. Given his long, lean body type was a poor fit for football, Iwuchukwu reluctantly started basketball again. In the summer after eighth grade, an AAU coach told Iwuchukwu he would never amount to anything in basketball. All with the hope that Iwuchukwu would be able to return to the court, but also the understanding that it might not happen.
Even as those issues weighed on Iwuchukwu’s mind, he tried to downplay them. He was at practice every day, cheering on his teammates from the sideline. Goofing around, talking trash. Just being Vince. “My parents are so loving and understanding,” he said. “They have put a lot of time into research and talking to other people, into certain knowledge from other sources for us to make the decision that it’s OK for me to play again. Honestly, they trust in me and I trust in them.”It began slowly. First the stationary bikes and lifting weights. He stalled there for an interminable length of time. Then after Thanksgiving, Iwuchukwu could dribble again and shoot.
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