Like everything else, Twitter has its pros and cons. In the case of Ebony Nettles, a high school basketball player battling cancer, Twitter helped one of her biggest dreams come true, meeting LeBron James. Fox Sports has the full story.
The Twitter hashtag, #LeBronMeetEbony, went viral in February, as the community rallied around a cancer-struck standout athlete.
Ebony Nettles-Bey, a girls basketball player for Verona High School, not only got to meet her hero on Saturday, but she also led the Heat onto the court for warmups and shot around with LeBron James.
“I couldn’t say anything,” Nettles-Bey told FOX Sports Wisconsin. “I just started crying, tears of joy.”
Nettles-Bey has stage-four Rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer in the soft tissues of the body. She’s played through the treatments and chemotherapy, averaging 4.3 points per game for Verona this past season. An all-conference player for Madison West High School as a sophomore before transferring to Verona for her junior season, Nettles-Bey reportedly made a verbal commitment to UW-Milwaukee before getting sick.
“I didn’t need to meet her to understand and know how strong she was,” James said. “But it’s great to be around her and see her enthusiasm even with what she’s dealing with. It’s like she doesn’t even have it. It’s not going to stop her. That’s a very unique trait.”
James said he found out about Nettles months ago but because of her inability to travel because of the cancer and the Miami Heat’s grueling schedule, Saturday, when they played the Milwaukee Bucks was the first opportunity they had to meet each other.
“Basketball is a small part of our lives,” James said. “The way that it can impact someone else’s life, that puts it all in perspective. What she’s going through every single day; the challenges she’s facing every single day with the Stage 4 cancer that she has, she’s the stronger one out of us two. She’s unbelievable, and for me to be someone that her last wish is to meet me, that’s a ‘Wow’ factor. It puts it all in perspective knowing I have that much influence and that much strength for someone to say that if I have one opportunity.
LeBron signed shoes for Ebony with the hashtag “#cancerwho, Ebony=Strong.” Ebony’s doctors say she is doing well and her tumors are shrinking. She said her faith is what allows her to stay strong and keep fighting this devastating disease.
Great job by Twitter, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat for helping a young girl’s dreams come true.