Kevin Ware on Louisville exit: 'I just feel like me leaving is a fresh start'

Kevin Ware became a household name in 2013, for the most unenviable reason imaginable. Ware's horrific leg injury in the Elite Eight of that year's NCAA tournament turned into a viral rubbernecking meme; it was spun into an emotional rallying-point narrative for the eventual champion Louisville Cardinals; and it turned a previously anonymous college reserve into a national celebrity.  

Ware surprised a lot of people with the speed with which he was able to get back into game shape and onto the court. He transferred from Louisville to Georgia Tech after what turned out to be a very difficult 2013-14 season, which included a major setback after his gruelling recovery, and a reckless-driving charge for which he drew unwelcome attention by missing his scheduled court date. That on top of the already-uncomfortable sensation of being famous for an injury. 

"It was a bad year, honestly," Ware told Adam Himmelsbach of the Courier-Journal. "Everybody always asking, everybody wanting to have conversations about it. Like, why can't we just have a conversation about basketball?

"I feel like I was mentally a lot stronger when I knew I could come back, and when I got hit again and (coaches and trainers) were saying I might want to sit out, it was just a lot of disappointment. Just sitting there not being able to help, not being able to do too much except be vocal. And that sucked. It really got to a point where I was just like, 'Man, this is crazy.' I was out of it mentally."

Now that he'll be moving on to a new program, Ware hopes that he can move away from those negative associations, and write a new story about himself.

"I just feel like me leaving is a fresh start," he said. "I know a lot of people think of me and think of the leg. But, I mean, I play basketball. I don't want to be known as a guy who just played for Louisville and got hurt."