Three years ago, Mike Poole was one of the top scorers and rebounders in the National Basketball League of Canada. He played several seasons for the Halifax Hurricanes, and was as dominant in the paint as any hoops fan could imagine.
And then, in September 2020, he was at a party in New Jersey, and when an altercation broke out, he was pushed out of the window of a high-rise building and fell to the earth – landing on the hood of a parked car.
He survived several broken bones and was in a coma for some time. Basketball was no longer important. Living was important.
I remember this. I blogged about it in September 2020.
Yesterday, the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Titans of the National Basketball League of Canada signed a player to their roster – a 6’5″ forward who played collegiately at Iona.
Mike Poole is back in the NBL.
This is incredible.
After recovering from his injuries and going through extensive rehabilitation, Poole re-tuned his body by playing for Halcones de Ciudad Obregón in Mexico, where he averaged 8.7 points per game in 15 contests.
And now he returns to the NBL. As I said before, this is incredible.
This would put Mike Poole in the same space as athletes like Tony Conigliaro, who returned to major league baseball after surviving a near-life-ending fastball against his skull. Or Mario Lemieux, who had to put his NHL Hall of Fame career on hold after a diagnosis for Hodgkins’ Lymphoma.
This is a feel-good story that every one of us can get behind, in a world that needs feel-good stories.
And I’m totally down with that.
Kitchener-Waterloo’s next scheduled contest is this Saturday, against the Sudbury (Ont.) Five. You know I’m tuning in for that game. Big time.
DISCLAIMER: I am a league statistician and director of player clearances for the National Basketball League of Canada.
Chuck The Writer 
“director of player clearances” – Did he need your blessing, or is that a height / doorway thing?
Good for him!
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