Serb disabled player makes return to professional basketball

Red Star Belgrade player Natasa Kovacevic (centre) fights for the ball during a Serbian women’s basketball league match in Belgrade on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. (Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo)

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian basketball player Natasa Kovacevic has done what many think is impossible.

Two years after her left leg was amputated below the knee following a traffic accident, the 21-year-old has returned to professional sport with the help of prosthesis.

She is believed to be the first disabled European basketball player to play in a pro team.

Kovacevic scored five points for Red Star Belgrade in Serbia’s top women’s basketball league Wednesday, completing an amazing comeback after the accident in Hungary in which she was seriously injured and her local club’s coach and general manager were both killed.

“I’m really thrilled to be alive, let alone playing basketball again,” Kovacevic said after the match, won by Red Star 78-47 against Student. “It’s like these two years did not happen at all.”

Kovacevic, 1.88 meters tall, has played at every age level for Serbia’s national teams.

Her motto: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.