Johnathan Motley opens up about the life-threatening appendix burst that nearly derailed his career and how his EuroLeague experience with Fenerbahce prepared him to lead Hapoel Tel Aviv to the EuroCup Finals.
It all could have turned out very differently for Johnathan Motley.
Now a key player for Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv and a 2024-25 All-EuroCup First Team selection, basketball wasn't always the top priority for Motley. In fact, back in high school, it was the furthest thing from his mind—for a while, at least.
Before his junior year, Motley faced a life-threatening setback when his appendix burst. He spent 18 days at Texas Children's Hospital, and for any young athlete, an ordeal like that could have been devastating.
Johnathan Motley
| Team: |
Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv |
| Position: | C |
| Age: | 29 |
| Height: | 206 cm |
| Weight: | 108 kg |
| Birth place: | Houston, United States of America |
"That was one of the weirdest moments in my life," Motley told EuroLeague.net's Geoff Gillingham. "It was a really crazy situation, and I could have almost died.
"I had bacteria spreading through my body, that's why I stayed in the hospital so long," he continued. "They had to connect a PICC line into arm so that the medicine can go straight to my heart. I was on medicine for like a couple of months or two – it was crazy.
"I just had to pump constant antibiotics just to kill all the germs because it had actually ruptured, so that was crazy. I wasn't even worrying about pro at that moment. I was just worried about getting better."
Naturally, Motley lost a significant amount of weight during his recovery.
"I think I lost like 30 pounds [13.6 kg], something crazy," Motley said. "It was bad. I couldn't eat for a while because you pump all that medicine into you; the medicine's got side effects, so I wasn't eating.
"I couldn't really move that much for a couple of weeks after I got out the hospital. And I had to take a medicine bag home so that the PICC line stayed in my body, so I had to keep it at home, and I had to go to school like this and connect bags of antibiotics to me. It was wild."
Fortunately, Motley bounced back.
For the past two years, Motley has been in the EuroLeague with Fenerbahce, which was key in preparing him for this current season at Hapoel as one of the favorites to lift the EuroCup trophy.
"The EuroLeague is a different monster," he said. "Playing for a team like Fener, you always know you're going to get everyone's best shot, so we were used to having a target on our back. I think that also prepared me for being on a team like Hapoel.
"When [the Hapoel front office] put all these guys together, now you have a target on your back. Now everyone's circling you from the beginning of the season, like, 'Oh, we need to play good this game.' I'm used to that. I know what it takes.
"I know what's going to come, and I know how to handle it, so I can also give guys knowledge who maybe haven't been at that level before and help them prepare for being the team that everyone wants to be because that's a whole different monster.
"Then you start seeing guys playing way more aggressive, way harder, making way more shots against you, and you've got to be able to respond to that and be able to still win because they brought you here to win, so you've got to be able to respond.
"Everything at Fener helped me become the player that I am: Coach [Dimitris] Itoudis, Coach Saras. Coach Saras is a great coach, and he also helped me become a better player. We won the Turkish Cup, the Turkish championship, got to the [EuroLeague] Final Four, so I had a lot of big-time experience and big-time games."
Now, Motley and Hapoel face one final EuroCup challenge. They begin their EuroCup Finals campaign against Gran Canaria on Tuesday. The two teams have already met twice this season, with Hapoel winning both regular-season matchups.
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