Fireworks accident cost him two fingers but he was what Austin basketball was missing
· Yahoo Sports
Five games into the season, the Austin High School boys basketball team was 1-4.
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Something was missing for a team that had high expectations coming into the season. Coach Brent Jameson had a pretty good idea what – or who – it was.
Brayden Konkler. Or, as he is known around Austin, a Southern Indiana community of 4,064 residents, “BK.”
One night early in the season, late on a Thursday night, Jameson texted Konkler. He wanted him to come back to the team. “YOU’RE EXACTLY WHAT THIS TEAM IS MISSING!” Jameson wrote in all caps. The decision not to play had nothing to do with Konkler’s love of basketball, his teammates or supporting his school.
He wanted to be there. He just did not know if he could.
Konkler’s predicament went back months earlier, to the evening of May 16, 2025. It was after baseball practice and he was hanging out with his father, Josh Konkler, shooting off fireworks near the family’s barn. Brayden was standing close to the tree line when he lit a firework and threw it.
Or he thought he did.
“I heard it go off,” Brayden said, “and as soon as it went off, I knew I didn’t let go of it.”
Josh ran over to Brayden, who had spun around and fell face first to the ground. He could tell Brayden’s left hand was in bad shape. Josh told him to look in the other direction. “My life is over, my life is over,” Brayden said.
Josh called 911. Brayden’s mother, Jessie Konkler, quickly joined them after she heard the second “boom” as she was inside doing laundry. The police arrived first, then the ambulance to transport him to a hospital in Louisville.
“It was by far the worst pain I’ve ever experienced,” Brayden said.
In addition to the injury to his hand, Konkler suffered burns on his stomach and arm. He prayed in the ambulance.
“Probably the longest prayer I’ve ever prayed,” he said.
Once the pain subsided a bit, he called two of his closest friends to let them know what happened. In the small town of Austin, rumors had already started circulating that Brayden had been shot.
That night, he underwent surgery that took about 4½ hours. Brayden had so many people coming to visit him at the hospital that weekend that the woman in the room next to him asked if he was a celebrity.
“I had big groups of people there every day,” he said.
The biggest concern, after losing his index and middle finger on his left hand, was the possibility that doctors might have to remove his thumb.
“The plan was that if I couldn’t feel my thumb or move it by Monday morning, they were going to remove it,” he said.
He did get feeling in his thumb by Sunday night, which turned out to be a major positive development. Brayden stayed in the hospital for a full week.
“It still surprises me (looking back) how positive my mindset was in the moment,” Brayden said. “Everyone around me seemed really sad, but I was the person keeping everybody motivated and telling everybody I was going to be OK.”
The night he got out of the hospital, Brayden served as the junior usher for Austin’s graduation ceremony. He got home, put on his suit and went straight to the school.
“I felt like that was important,” he said, “for me to show the community that I was OK.”
The first month to six weeks after he was released from the hospital was a “bit of a struggle” as he recovered from the burns. But soon enough, he was able to swim and play basketball regularly. By July, he joined the gym again and got to work lifting weights. He could not even hold the weights with his left hand, but he could wrap cables around his wrist.
“That’s really what helped me get my mindset right again,” Brayden said. “I lifted really hard for a few months and I got really close with God and started leading Bible studies. I felt like my outlook the whole time was really positive and having a huge support system is what helped me a lot.”
Brayden attended baseball games and summer basketball workouts. But especially early on, there were concerns if he could physically return to play basketball. Brayden was not necessarily a big scorer as a junior but played a key role as a defender, rebounder and leader.
“I’ve never been that much of a big scorer,” he said. “I had really worked hard leading up to me getting hurt and I was thinking I was going to be scoring at least double-digit points. After I got hurt, I was like, ‘I don’t want to go out here and not score.’ That’s what my original mindset was.”
But that changed, eventually, with some prodding from his mother and from Jameson. Before the season, Jameson explained to Brayden that he could still be an important piece to the team even if he did not score a lot.
On Dec. 12, Austin lost 64-52 to Henryville to drop to 1-4. Just a couple of days earlier, Jameson had sent that text to Brayden about rejoining the team. This time, he agreed.
“At that moment, I was like, ‘It’s not like he wants me to play,’” Brayden said. “It was more of, ‘The team and coaching staff misses me, and I can have a big impact.’”
His first game back, at home against Class 2A undefeated and No. 1 Paoli, was Dec. 19. When Brayden went to the scorer’s table and entered the game, the Austin fans gave him a standing ovation. Austin lost … barely. Paoli escaped with a 50-49 win in its closest game of the season.
Since then? Austin is 15-3. “We joke that we are 16-8 but BK is 15-4,” Jameson said.
Brayden does not score a lot. His season high is six points. He has learned to shoot despite the loss of his two fingers, moving the ball to the right side of his hand on the release.
More important than the statistics, however, is his presence. In the sectional championship on Saturday night, Brayden did not score a point or take a shot. But Austin won the game, 53-51, against Southwestern (Hanover) for the program’s first sectional title in eight years.
“I had a really strong leadership role on the team last season,” Brayden said. “And we have a young team, too. Guys who just haven’t experienced sports at that high of a level. So I knew that if I could have something to help with the team, that’s what I could do the most. I realized how much of an impact I could have.”
Jameson said in 3-point shooting drills, Brayden consistently makes in the high 40s in a five-minute period. He had to relearn how to catch the ball and get himself set to shoot, but once he got back into the season, muscle memory took over. He is shooting 75% on 2-point field goals and his free-throw percentage is just under 70%.
“It’s pretty impressive how he just slides the ball over,” Jameson said. “That’s BK. He just figures stuff out.”
Figuring stuff out is part of Brayden’s personality. He has leaned into his faith in his recovery. After the sectional championship celebration, he asked if he could get on the microphone and pray for the team and the community.
“I feel like that’s something that helps me express myself,” he said. “I try to use God to teach through myself and use myself to teach the word. I think that’s kind of what’s helped me to be more positive.”
Brayden goes so far to say he is glad it happened to him instead of someone else. Even in the ambulance on the night of the accident, Jessie remembers him saying, “Maybe God had a different plan for me.”
“I’m happy that it happened – in a way – because I wouldn’t be who I am today if it didn’t happen,” he said. “I wouldn’t understand things or be as close to God if it didn’t happen.”
Austin will play Forest Park in the Class 2A regional Saturday at Charlestown. The last two times Austin came within a game of the semistate – 2005 and 2018 – it was Forest Park that knocked the Eagles out.
Would Austin be here without Brayden? The answer to that question brings Jameson to tears.
“I don’t really believe in coincidences,” he said. “It’s no coincidence that when BK came back, we started winning. We have some really good players, some really good scorers, but if you asked them the most instrumental player on the team, I can bet they would say BK. Who he is as a person and what he’s overcome, you can’t underscore his value. I can guarantee we would not have won a sectional championship without him.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Accident cost Austin senior Brayden Konkler two fingers but not his purpose