A Second Shot At Life

"Every time I would see him at social events or at Pacer games, I would say, 'You ready yet?' " says Williams, who played for the Indiana Olympians, another wheelchair team, before starting his own team in 1987. "Then I was putting on an exhibition in '87, and I saw Landon coming toward me, and I threw him the ball. He hit his first shot and was hooked."

Turner soon learned there is a world of difference between the able-bodied game and its wheelchair counterpart. "It's physical," Turner says. "I'll tell you, I've had many fingernails torn off from running into these wheelchairs and being rammed."

Turner is using his celebrity to help teach people about overcoming adversity and about being more thoughtful toward the handicapped. He started a motivational-speaking business, Landon Turner Enterprises Inc., in early 1989.

"I go around to different organizations-schools, churches or whoever would like to have me speak-and I basically tell them the story about my life," he says. "Things happen in life, and you just have to be able to accept them."