Hansel Enmanuel dreams of NBA
One-armed basketball player enchants the sports world
By Emmanuel Schneider
03/10/2023, 7:08 p.m
He only has one arm and still plays basketball at a high level in the USA. Hansel Enmanuel enchants the basketball world with his history, spectacular dunks – and a positive attitude towards life.
The longed-for moment begins with a misthrow. Hansel Enmanuel stands at the free-throw line for the Northwestern State Demons basketball team in mid-December – and throws. But his team gets the rebound, the ball lands on him again. Then Hansel Enmanuel completes the attack with what has made him so famous. He strides through the zone with elemental force and dunks the leather through the ring. Frenetic cheers in the hall. Now this isn’t just any dunking, it’s the first two points ever in Hansel Enmanuel’s college career.
There are five counters in the statistics sheets at the end. Previously, Enmanuel had remained pointless for several games. Enmanuel’s stats to date give little indication that he is one of the most respected basketball players in US varsity. In 20 games, he averages just over 8 minutes of game time, scoring 1.7 points and 1.2 rebounds. It’s not a star’s stats. But that’s not what it is about. Hansel Enmanuel’s story goes well beyond points, rebounds and assists. “I know that my family is proud. I had to keep working. You can’t give up,” said Enmanuel proudly after the first college points.
The fact that the young man, 19 years old, can even play at this level here at the college is still amazing today. Because Enmanuel plays with a deficit that is even more massive in basketball – the sport of long arms and big hands – than it already is. Hansel Enmanuel has only had one arm since childhood. When he was six years old, a wall buried him in his Dominican homeland. Hours later, his father found him and freed the child. Help came too late for his left arm, which had to be surgically removed just below the shoulder.
“So he dubs that he has no other hand”
Nowadays Enmanuel speaks of a “blessing”. One can only imagine the energy it takes to maintain a positive attitude and optimism despite such a bad accident. “I thought it was over. What should I do now?” He asked himself after the accident, as he explained to the “Associated Press” in one of his very few interviews.
Little Hansel liked to play baseball, switched to basketball after the accident, which his father didn’t like at all at first. Father Hansel Salvador himself made a career as a professional basketball player on the island. Enmanuel’s abilities and talent are unmistakable. He is 1.98 meters tall, a muscle man who jumps out of the hall – that’s how big the jump is.
“He is a very athletic player who plays with a lot of effort. He can do a lot with his strong hand when it comes to dribbling,” explains basketball expert and author André Voigt in an interview with RTL / ntv. “That’s how he covers up and conceals the fact that he has no other hand.”
Push-ups ensure a special moment
In the Dominican Republic, Enmanuel took his first pictures of himself playing streetball as a teenager. The Life Christian Academy in Kissimmee/Florida became aware of the young man. The coach there was once a team-mate with father Salvador and guided Hansel to the US school on a scholarship. That’s where the hype really picked up speed. In 2021, he became a social media sensation. Crashing one-arm dunkings flickered through the net as a permanent highlight reel and catapulted him into new spheres of hype. He is now followed by 1.6 million Instagram accounts.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal campaigned for the guard last summer when college offers for a scholarship initially failed to materialize. The center icon also shared a moving story about Enmanuel on Instagram.
In a video, his college coach Corey Gipson explains what makes up the spirit of Hansel Enmanuel. As punishment, Gipson always had his team do push-ups on their fingertips. But now that Enmanuel was fresh on board, it felt wrong for the coach. He said: We do sprints. According to his coach, Enmanuel realized what was going on. The youngster insisted that the push-ups be done. So push-ups for the whole team. But physics threw a spanner in the works for Enmanuel, with the first push-up on one hand he lost his strength and trembled. The team stopped – and reacted perfectly. A teammate came over, grabbed Enmanuel by the waist and helped him execute. “They did all five together,” says his coach proudly. “Come on,” Hansel shouted. “He’s so much more than just dunks,” says his coach, Gipson.
Missed the final and still reached the goal
That’s how he ticks, his teammates explain. Enmanuel doesn’t want any extra sausage and certainly no pity. He just wants to play basketball. And he wants to earn his place as a basketball player with honest work. Not because of his Insta-Fame, nothing but advertising workhorses or a circus number. It certainly helped that he chose the small Northwestern State University in Louisiana. Smaller place, fewer distractions, less limelight. “He has an incredible work ethic,” teammate Isaac Haney told the New York Times.
Enmanuel’s stats aren’t breathtaking, and he doesn’t really want to dominate the headlines himself, as he stresses. He still dominates them and also benefits from them. The 19-year-old has made several advertising deals, including with Adidas and beverage company Gatorade. He likes to show himself with expensive cars on Instagram. His scholarship as a foreign player allows him to take lavish side income with him. Not bad as a role player at a rather insignificant and small university.
Expert Voigt is certain that it will not be enough for the big step into the NBA, the dream of all college players. “When in doubt, he’s not an NBA talent, at some point it’s no longer possible to compensate for the fact that you can only pull to one side. And if you want to get to the other side, you have to do things with dribbling that take time,” explains he. “It won’t do for the NBA because it’s too big a handicap if you only have one arm, one hand.” The fact that Enmanuel made the leap to college is in itself a “great story”.
Not much was missing for the cheesy happy ending. After his first points in December 2022, his playing time increased and he started several times. Enmanuel didn’t become the star of the team but is an important building block. He brings energy into the game, tears himself up on defense and has a good throw from the outside. He helped the Demons reach the Southland Conference finals. For the first time in ten years, the Demons came close to making the legendary championship tournament of the NCAA, the collegiate league. In the final they lost to Texas A&M 71:75 on Thursday night. The final dream has burst, Enmanuel’s path continues. There is no doubt about it. A big goal has already been achieved: He is taken seriously as a basketball player.