Basketball and an Act of Kindness

In March of 2014, the game of basketball almost took it all away from Conor. This Sunday in Gampel Pavilion, with an assist from Rodney Purvis, Conor got some of it back.

Conor loves basketball. “He’s been a basketball fan since I can remember,” says his mother Patty Spina Griffin. It was while playing the sport he loves, in a rec league playoff game, that an opposing player bumped Conor, knocking him down. Conor’s head hit the floor, then the other child landed on him, dealing a second blow that would instantly change life for Conor and his family.

“He spent his 12th birthday at Connecticut Children’s Hospital where he had spinal taps to relieve pressure on the brain,” recalls Patty.

With his vision impaired, Conor listened to UConn win the 2014 national championship on the radio. Since then, he and his family have been on a long road to recovery. “He now takes speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy; he’ll do about a year of vision therapy once he can take it,” says Patty. “They’re teaching him Braille so he can learn. He hasn’t been in school since 2014. He has a tutor. Our lives have forever changed.”

As the family adapted to their new, difficult reality, a chance encounter at a shopping mall provided a moment of hope.

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“Last May, we were at the Westfarms mall and in the middle of the mall, he spotted him,” recalls Patty. “My son said ‘there’s Rodney!’”

At 6’4”, Rodney Purvis is easy to spot. “[Conor] couldn’t see too well from his injuries, but he sure saw [Purvis] from a mile away,” Patty said.

Conor ran up to Purvis, and asked to take a selfie with the basketball player. “He gladly said ‘of course,’” Patty said. “You can see that [Conor’s] mouth is hanging wide open because he was so excited. It was the first time we’d seen him smile in the longest time. My husband kept reliving it over and over again and saying ‘you should’ve seen his smile.’”

“That night, I went on Facebook and I wanted to let him know the story, of him stopping as a random act of kindness. It might have been no big deal to him. I wanted him to know that what he did was much more because of what happened to my son and his injury. That’s how this all started.”

Once Purvis learned of Conor’s injuries, he made an offer to Patty — get Conor well enough to come to a game and he’d be welcomed as the guard’s personal guest. Last week, Conor’s doctors finally gave him the green light. When he heard the news, Purvis responded: “How about this Sunday?”

When UConn took the floor against East Carolina, Conor was in a floor seat with his family surrounding him. Purvis had turned over his portion of tickets reserved for family. Short one, Omar Calhoun joined in, supplying a ticket of his own.

And so Conor sat in the second row and watched the team he loves play the game he loves. When the final buzzer sounded, he was reunited with his new friend. “Rodney said ‘I’m going to run right over to him after the game,’ and I said ‘you won’t miss him. He’ll be the kid with the biggest smile on his face,’” said Patty. “And he did, he ran right over.”

The resulting picture of the pair hugging courtside, accompanied by Patty’s thankful note to Purvis, drew plenty of attention on Sunday evening. Patty is hoping by telling the story of Conor and Purvis that even more will come. “I even wrote the coach to let him know what Rodney did,” she said. “He should be recognized for that.”

“You never know what somebody is going through. That day, when he stopped in the mall, he had no idea that this little boy was injured doing something that he loves to do. He could’ve just walked on. He didn’t do that because that’s not who he is. To me it’s just remarkable. You just don’t see that. He’s a hero to my family. He’s a hero to my child. He’s a hero to anybody because people don’t do that for any recognition. He did that just because that’s who he is.”

Conor will continue his rehabilitation. Rodney Purvis will continue to play basketball and Conor will watch the game the he loves, and that brought this unlikely pair together.