- All the stuff that I've been through....
It could make or break you.
- I grew up watching my sister play.
I tried to shoot like my sister.
I wanted to be lefthanded like her.
She was good, she was in the fifth grade,
sixth grade, playing with boys.
Watching her was inspiring, and I was
always the little brother - just,
just this baby brother running around
with a basketball watching my sister play.
- "I want to be better then my sister.
I want that trophy, I want that trophy, she got this."
- I come home, I have a 20-point game,
they come tell me Alexis had 50.
- People who know me, they probably think, "Ah, she joke a
lot, she laugh a lot and she's super caring."
- She was a happy little baby.
She always grinning. I mean you could tell she
was going to be sports-inclined, 'cause anything
you put in her hand she could go with it.
- She was a daddy's girl, she got everything
she want. He took care of her.
- She was another reason that made me just,
kind of, want to live an even better life,
because I knew I had to take care of her.
She probably started playing basketball at the age of four.
I just seen her special type and
I just wanted to coach her as hard
as I can and I wanted her to really be the best.
- I loved to play, and I would go out there and
play it for fun and play hard, and that's 'cause
that's what I grew up on with my dad.
His thing was to make you play with
older kids all the time, and he thought that
that was gonna make me a better player.
- Every time we took her to an event they want
to see her birth certificate, 'cause they could
swear up and down that she can't be this age,
because she can be in the sixth grade
playing with eighth- and ninth-graders.
- I worked for the Boys & Girls Club for like 16 years,
and that's where they grew up.
You see kids from all types of
walks and I just got touched by it.
- I think that was just the most memorable and
important time in my life, 'cause it showed
who I was as a person and who my dad was.
- You know, he goes out of his way
for others rather than himself.
- I just got up that morning, and it was cold,
it was raining, and I said, "You know what?
We're going to make this move anyway,
but, yeah, I think it's going to clear up."
- I remember everything.
We were leaving Midland and we were on our way,
because my sister was playing on
a team in Dallas and my dad helped coach.
And I remember, I was in the front seat
and all the girls were in the back seat.
- And then my wife called me:
"You alright? It's snowing here."
I said, "Yeah, it's snowing here too."
I said, "I think I'm getting ready to turn around."
- And then, next thing you know, I hear an
"Oh!" and next thing you know we start crashing.
We hit a guard rail to the left.
The car flipped over and I flew out the window.
And, honestly, I don't know how I even survived.
- I just remember waking up, I was outside the car
and then I remember seeing Andrew way over there.
- I was underneath the car and
Alexis came over to me and asked me
was I all right. I couldn't get out the car.
I was pinned, and Alexis kept telling me,
"Get out, Daddy, get out!" And I couldn't move and so
I told her pick my phone up and call her momma.
- To see him helpless and not being able to move
in that bed - when I saw him I cried.
- You don't ever want to see your parents cry, you know?
He just broke down and told me,
"I might not be able to walk again."
- I wanted him to get up, because I seen tubes in
him. I've never seen him like that before.
- It was hard to take in, 'cause it's like, "Who's
going to coach me, what am I supposed to do now?"
- You know, my dad was this strong, about six-one,
muscular man who always did everything.
Never complained. He was always doing stuff for us,
worked three jobs.... It's just -
To see him helpless and not being able to move in that bed.
- I remember just - not being able to get out of bed.
When I realized I couldn't do it
the way I used to do it.
That probably was my biggest depression.
You know, like I tell everybody,
I am so blessed that I'm the one that got hurt,
instead of the girls, because if any
of them kids would of got hurt I don't know if I'd been able
to, you know, walk around, 'cause I wouldn't be able
to look nobody else - and the parents - in their
eyes if they kids would have been paralyzed.
- She never tried to push us, she just let my dad
do all the sports and she was just the mom.
- She was more of the glue in the family.
She had her job, but also she always
supported us at the same time.
- She's a full-time mother, she's a full-time
caregiver and she goes to work
full-time, and I love her to death.
It really got to Lex, at first,
because now she didn't have me to turn to.
All of a sudden you're there, but then you're not there.
- The years I was growing up was when Duke was
really good and that's when I fell in love with Duke.
It wasn't hard until the second year.
It was like, "O.K., I'm a bit far
and they can't make it to all the games."
Sitting out for a whole year was
difficult and hard, but I took
advantage of it and I learned a lot.
- It was great being able to come home, being
able to go up there every weekend and watch her play.
I think that gave me some more life,
because at that time I was watching
Andrew in high school, and then we
would go watch her on her weekend.
- If I was having bad day I could go home
and be with people that would just
enjoy me and love me for who I am.
- To do that after she done had the ACL tear, and
being able to continue to make it from that
and continue to play, is a great blessing.
- With the 12th pick in the 2017
WNBA draft the Minnesota Lynx select
Alexis Jones, from Baylor University.
- This is such a special moment.
You're whole family's here, your
brother Andrew, who plays for Texas,
who's entered in the NBA draft,
your dad, who was paralyzed driving
you to basketball game in a car accident.
And here he gets to watch you get drafted.
What does that mean to you?
- It means a lot to me. I'm just ... I'm happy and
I'm just excited they get to be here today.
- That's probably one of the
experiences I will never forget.
She worked hard and her dream finally came true.
- I love her more then anybody else in the world.
I love seeing her, 'cause of the
success and the potential that she has.
- That's it! Title number 4
for the Minnesota Lynx dynasty
comes with a taste of sweet redemption!
- So I started feeling sick kind of
after we got back from Australia.
We started getting into the season.
I started to feel run down, started to feel heavy.
It was kind of depressing, because I was
almost at the peak of my game.
I was playing at a high level
to make myself a potential draft pick.
- I noticed that that energy level
that he used to have wasn't there.
And I looked at his face and I said, "Man, what's wrong?"
And he said, "I'm tired." Tired?
- It kind of feels like a dehydrating type
of feeling. And it's like you don't want to move,
you just want to lay there. And then I
started feeling my heart pound very hard.
I could feel it coming through my chest.
- He's not playing right. He's not breathing
right. And his dad was just thinking his game, and
I'm just thinking, "Carla, something's wrong."
And I said, "Yeah, something's wrong
with him." I said, "You can just tell."
- At first they thought that I had a viral infection.
They thought I probably had the flu.
I'm just going to get some TheraFlu and
I'll be good in a week. But it didn't get better.
I went and got blood work done,
and she told me it was leukemia.
- When I got a text from Andrew I was in Israel.
"Alexis, I just found out I got cancer.
Everything will be O.K. I'm gonna be all right.
I'm gonna get through this,
and I'mma be straight."
And I'm just like....
- You don't want to believe it, and I didn't believe it.
When my husband called me I was at work,
and he said, "They just did the blood test on Andrew."
And I said, "What'd it say?"
And he said, "He got leukemia."
And I said, "No, he don't."
- Is he going to survive?
How long will he got?
How'd he get it?
- To see his dream just shattered and
how hard he worked ... I think I fear
the most is him not going to the NBA.
I think that's what like I fear, like....
'Cause I want it so bad for him, you know?
I want you to be able to do everything
that you worked hard for, and I believe
he can. But that's my fear, that's what I want.
- I just broke down, because I'm like....
I never thought anything like this was going to happen.
Googling A.L.L., what is acute lymphoblastic
leukemia means ... most people who
hear cancer, "O.K. Death."
- Five years, six years maybe.
Like, "Man, that's all my son got to live."
He was on so many antibiotics and he had
so many ... stuff running out of him.
And as parents, you don't know what to do.
- My mom literally took off work to be there with me.
My dad was with me in the hospital.
With everything I went through, they were there
with me. And that just brought -
especially me, my mom and dad -
that brought us closer then ever.
- It was killing her. She couldn't concentrate.
She called her daddy just ... every day she was calling.
"How's he doing? He have a good one? I'm coming down."
We said, "Well, Alexis we're trying
to get it under control right now."
"Nope, I'm coming."
So, of course, she came over and just made his day.
- I used to call my sister when I was in the restroom.
Because I'd just go to the restroom and
be in there because I didn't want to
be in my bed no more ... and just FaceTime her.
- Then one day he got up, and I was in the bathroom,
because I go in the bathroom with him
and I stand right there to make
sure he doesn't fall and stuff.
Then all of a sudden he was brushing his teeth,
and he started dancing. So I was
like, "Oh my God, I have to film it."
- Basketball is my life.
Basketball is what I do.
And that's kind of what keeps me going every day.
That's what's making me still fight to this day.
- "I want to go shoot basketball," and
I'm like, "Andrew you can't walk."
And he went down there with all his equipment
on him. We took him down there, and he just said,
"I don't want to do anything else, I just want to shoot."
- I couldn't shoot outside the paint.
I couldn't get the ball up. I didn't have strength.
So I was like, "O.K., if I do this
every day, I'm going to get better."
I was released from the hospital
February 24th, so after February, March came.
I went from 150 to now I'm 160.
I play with professional athletes every day.
I'm the only one with a PICC line in my arm and
medicine going through me, and I'm competing.
- Seeing him go through it and
seeing all the changes and stuff like that,
I think it just brought our family together
and made us stronger. And seeing him back
playing again shows you who he is as a person.
- Just in a blink of an eye your
whole life changes, and you know, we
done had some life-changing situations.
And so I'm just blessed that the Lord done
gave us a chance to be successful.
- Life is never going to be normal,
and people don't understand that.
I have a son with cancer, which I know he had,
that you never know if it will come back.
I have a husband that's paralyzed from
the chest down that I do care for.
That's never gonna walk away. It's only
going to get worse as we get older.
So therefore all I can do is just have
God to give you strength and just keep going.
That's all you can do.
- When Andrew gets better and as Lex continues to
grow, my goal next year when I leave here,
I told myself I'm going to probably
look for me a part-time job.
I'm probably going to still try to coach,
but I'm also just trying to find me
something to do every day while I'm coaching too.
- I'm starting to embrace being a cancer survivor.
It's like, "Oh, you're Andrew Jones. You play basketball,
but you had leukemia and you beat it.
And you're continuing to beat it.
If I can inspire you just to get up in the
morning and attempt to make your life better,
then I've done my job. I feel good.
I done been to the bottom and back.
I done faced death twice. I'm here by
a blessing and grace of God.
- You've been through a lot. No
matter what you've been through,
you still manage to just keep pushing away.
I think as little girl I knew how to just
go through problems and just go about my day.
You knew how to just fight through all
the problems that you've been through, and
you worked hard for everything that
you been through today. So just be proud that
it all worked out for itself at the end of day.