Davis Bertans recently made an appearance on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back show. At one point in his conversation with Michelle Beadle, Chandler Parsons, and Lou Williams, Bertans was asked about him only having four and a half fingers. Much to the panel members’ surprise, the Latvian showed his right hand which had half of his ring finger missing.
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Davis Bertans had everyone in shock when he flashed his hand with half a finger missing. Speaking about the accident that caused the same, the Charlotte Hornets forward revealed that it occurred almost 19 years ago. At the age of 12, Bertans was cutting wood to help his grandfather stay warm. Being slightly careless, his story finished with him being “on the wrong end” of his tool.
“The really short version is – I was like 12-13 years old, grandfather needed wood for heating… It was me, my brother, and my dad, we were cutting wood and unfortunately, the short story is just I ended up on the wrong end,” Bertans revealed.
Back in 2017, Davis Bertans also spoke about this same incident to My San Antonio. He had then disclosed not even feeling any pain. The innocent youngster showed the hurt finger to his father, who then immediately rushed him to the hospital.
“I was in shock right way, but I didn’t feel pain, nothing,” Bertans said. “I just showed it to my dad, and we went straight to the hospital.”
Despite missing half a finger on his shooting hand, Bertans is one of the best shooters in the league today. Apart from having shooting splits of 38.8% from three-point range and 90% from the free-throw line, the “Latvian Laser” has also knocked down 871 three-pointers over his seven-year career, per Basketball Reference.
It is incredible that Bertans could formulate his game around his shooting ability despite not having a full five fingers on his shooting hand. That said, as it turns out, players playing with the absence of a body part and still having successful careers is not as uncommon as one might believe.
Like Davis Bertans, Michael Jordan also had a wood-chopping-related accident
Davis Bertans isn’t the only NBA player to have suffered a gruesome injury through a wood-chopping-related accident. Michael Jordan also accidentally chopped off a part of his body while using an axe.
During an appearance on David Letterman’s Late Night, Jordan narrated how he, as a young kid, was playing with an axe even after being warned not to. Trying to chop little bits and pieces of wood, MJ eventually swung the axe and got a part of his toe chopped.
“Well, I was being bad first of all. My parents told me not to mess with the axe. I don’t have any shoes on. So I’m chopping little bits and pieces of wood and being hard-headed and I accidentally missed the wood and cut half of my big toe,” Jordan said.
Somehow, Mike got back home quickly and showed the horrific sight to his mother. Eventually, Deloris took her child to the neighborhood doctor, who applied kerosene to the toe.
“I ran home and my mother and my father said, ‘Well, let’s go down to see this lady who is supposed to be the neighborhood doctor’. She (the doctor) pulled kerosene over my toe. It took away the pain,” Jordan added.
However, the injured toe didn’t seem to be a setback for Michael Jordan as he would go on to dominate the college basketball circuit, before going onto the NBA and becoming arguably the greatest basketball player to ever do it.
