One Arm, No Limits
In 2017, a viral video showed a 14-year old Dominican kid juking defenders and then hitting a three-pointer.
The player only had a right arm.
He now has 1.3 million Instagram followers, millions of dollars and two years left of Division One basketball.
Famous rappers, both local to Santo Domingo and those who have risen to global fame, protected “Hansel Enmanuel” as he grew to 6’6” and went to high school in Miami.
I saw him last week in Los Mina, Santo Domingo’s neediest but most spirited neighborhood. He continued to thank me for the work Full Court Peace does in Los Mina. What shone through most was the kid I met years ago, the kind soul who sparked an explosion of basketball in his neighborhood.
Rapper Puñalard runs the show there, including all things street basketball. He even got Ozuna to come in and square off against Manuel. Hansel took the crown.
Investing in Puñalard was the best decision we made in the Dominican Republic. There are 300 uniformed players, weekly tournaments and even a semi-pro team.
But we would have never met him if it weren’t for a relentless young man who wanted to prove to the world that his condition wasn’t goin to stop him.
