Max Okun plays to win.
On one Saturday afternoon at the Student Recreation Complex, the business communications junior from Scottsdale joined a pickup basketball game in the facility’s maroon gym. He hit several 3-pointers throughout the game. He darted after loose balls. He even made his opponents on defense holler, “Don’t leave him open!”
And Okun does this all with half of a left arm.
The right-handed shooter still uses the end of his left arm — where his elbow would have been — as a “guide hand” for his jump shot, and after the game the end of his arm was swollen. Okun, however, said it’s completely normal.
“It does get red a lot, but I think that’s just the body overheating,” Okun said. “It never gets tired, though. I love running around out there.”
Okun has lived with his condition his entire life. Born 10 weeks premature, Okun’s left arm was stunted in growth and never developed properly. He said he’s never known the difference compared to having another full arm, and he embraces his condition.
“I actually love it,” he said. “I get to have a life that most people don’t ever get to have. Wherever I go, I know everybody’s looking and watching. It’s kind of fun. I love it.”
Okun has become a staple at the SRC courts, playing several times a week. He has also played in intramural leagues. According to him, almost every game he joins follows the same routine.
If the other team has never seen him play before, it usually matches up its worst defensive player against him, giving Okun easy chances to score. By the end of the game, the best defender is forced to guard him.
“My team expects it because they’re usually my friends, and we all find it funny,” he said with a smile.
As a child, he played almost every sport, but basketball became Okun’s forte early in life. Until his right arm grew stronger and the nub on his left budded, Okun started playing basketball by using his face as a guide for his shots.
He eventually made Saguaro High School’s varsity basketball team in his senior season and recorded three 3-pointers for the Sabercats in seven games. His roommate and high school teammate, management junior Taylor Gustafson, said Okun once caught fire from the 3-point line in a summer league game and scored over 40 points, leading his team to victory.
“Everyone will forget he has one arm,” Gustafson said.
Talk to Okun about his arm, and he refuses to say anything negative about it. His can-do attitude and ability to fit in inspires everyone close to him.
“Our family is most proud of Max not for what he can physically do, but more about his outlook on life and how he inspires people all around him,” his mother Susie said. “Max has taught us that it's not what happens to you in life, but how (you) handle what happens to you. It's his positive outlook and inner strength that I am proudest of. Max has made me a better person, understanding that life is a gift and the journey is all about attitude.”
Okun isn’t alone. After 3TV News ran a story on him while he was at Saguaro, his email inbox was flooded with messages by dozens of high school athletes around the country going through similar conditions and looking to reach out to him. He befriended and plays regularly with another high school basketball player with the same disability and said that he’s “actually better than me.”
Students who succeed on campus with physical disabilities are not scarce at ASU. Okun said in the past, he has gained a lot of respect for a former student after watching him climb a set of stairs several times despite not having a right leg.
That student was former wrestler Anthony Robles. When informed about Okun’s story, the 2011 NCAA Champion expressed mutual respect and related to Okun and other athletes’ experiences.
“(People) call them disabilities, and they automatically take them off the table, but the kids develop a way,” Robles said. “(Max) has shown a way through basketball that he’s not disabled, he just found another way to get his goals accomplished. It’s really nice.”
Now a motivational speaker traveling nationwide, Robles has also been exposed to stories about other athletes missing limbs and succeeding in basketball, swimming and football. He sees a lot of these athletes succeed and believes they can compete in professional sports one day.
“I see it growing a lot, actually,” Robles said.
Although Okun plans to graduate from the W. P. Carey School of Business, he wants to pursue a career somewhere in the medical field. The point guard’s reason why, however, was not very surprising.
“I just want a job that I know I can help people somewhere,” he said.
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
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