With two more years of college and whatever comes after that still before him, Kevin Ware's story is far from over. But if you wanted to wrap things up with a tidy little bow — if Ware's horrifying March Madness injury and return to the basketball court were to be chronicled in a Hollywood movie — Wednesday night gave us the perfect, ideal, truth-is-better-than-fiction ending.
Ware played his first game for Louisville since breaking his leg in one of the most gruesome injuries ever shown on live TV, a play so shocking that video of the accident and sympathy for Ware went viral for days on social media. But not only did Ware play just over half a year after literally snapping his leg in half. When he received a pass on the right wing with Louisville up big on visiting Pikeville Wednesday night, Ware squared up, looked at the basket and took his first official shot attempt in seven months.
Swish. Fade to black and roll credits — if this were our Hollywood movie.
See also: Underage Vine Sensation Terio Reaches for the Stars
This isn't our Hollywood movie, though; it's Ware's life and he still has to work his way back into coach Rick Pitino's Louisville rotation, continue improving as a player and then maybe, if he's lucky, one day make a living playing basketball. But for now, Ware's routine three-pointer is a pretty fantastic bit of inspiration. It's no wonder this YouTube clip has been watched some 100,000 times since Wednesday night:

Contrast it with the Ware clip everyone watched with horror as March turned to April this past spring. Ware, leaping to contest a routine jump shot as his Cardinals played Duke for a berth in the Final Four. Ware landing, then collapsing in pain right in front of the Louisville bench. Ware's broken right tibia jutting out of his skin, his ankle and foot hanging flaccidly from the useless limb. Ware's teammates and coaches reacting in total horror, some sobbing as doctors wheeled Ware off the court.
From there, Ware's story took a life of its own online. The Internet couldn't get enough of the horrific injury, while Ware's name and the hashtag #PrayForWare became Twitter trends and spread beyond the confines of sports media to news sites across the web.
Louisville marched on to win the national title (another crucial plot point in our would-be Hollywood flick), but Ware became a force of inspiration not just for his teammates but for fans and non-fans the world over. His Twitter following exploded to more than 120,000 people as he thanked well-wishers and corresponded with celebrities who didn't know his name just days before. He also used Twitter to chronicle his recovery, posting a shot of himself leaving the hospital to rejoin his teammates at the Final Four, then another wildly popular photo of himself on an exercise bike just less than three weeks after the injury.
But looking back all these months later, it's this post with more than 17,000 retweets that may stand out most of all:
Minor setback, for a major comeback.
— Kevin Ware (@5Juice) April 2, 2013
That comeback took a major step on Wednesday night with one simple jump shot. A scriptwriter couldn't have dreamed it up any better.
Image: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images