today on larry king now athletes who defy the odds will meet snowboarder kevan pierce i was on the set path and i was a cell boarder and i was competing and i was successful and that that was my life now is in park city fell had this accident and now i have to figure out what's next i love the freedom there are no rules there are no limits there's no nothing on your snowboard it's all about you doing what you want plus the extraordinary story of a one of a basketball player kevin lao people come out underestimating me from the get go which i used to my vintage you know i come play hard for me kenny and you know i surprise them it's all next on larry king now.

welcome to larry king now on new year's eve two thousand and nine forty nine days before the two thousand and ten winter olympics american professional snowboarder and gold medal favorite kevin peers suffered a severe brain injury while training in park city utah sadly kevin's career was cut short his life changed forever his story of tragedy and triumph is the subject of a new h.b.o. documentary titled the crash real kevin joins us now to talk about the documentary in the second segment what happened. wow december thirty first two thousand and nine my my life changed it took a huge huge turn out snowboarding and. good question and i wasn't partying yet i wanted to go to the olympics and that was my goal and i needed to train and i needed practice and i was working on getting better in. i was up there

in the half i have been trying one of the new tricks in just been or have for me and it was crazy what was the trick it was called a cab double cork and what that is honest no worries you're going up to half a ball backwards and you take off and you to flips into spins in you're supposed to come down the wall going forward and i came down the wall sideways and caught my friend edge and slam to my head in i don't remember that day before i had done it yeah i hadn't done it that well you know i was still learning this trick he was very new to me and i'm going to do it in the olympics i needed to do in the olympics to have done well i needed that trick to kind of help me get to the top and that was where i wanted to be was at the i wanted to win the olympics and i needed this trick to where did you grow up i grew up in vermont and i grew up snowboarding you'll see it's a good job as a kid yeah i have real good others zero yeah i've driller brothers and they kind of were there from the so you know skeered to i was never as here i was right in the

snow warning in that was it my my older brothers were still mourning and i wanted to copy them and that's what they were doing so i was like i want to get on a war sword. and we you not see your intentions yeah so i was put in an induced coma for a week and a half in then i was in the critical care and not salt lake city for twenty seven days and i don't remember it's crazy cause i don't remember any of those twenty seven days i have no memory of being in that no other crash no i don't remember any of that day when you relate this crash or tell you to me as it was told to you yeah it's all information that i've been given and it's crazy not whether you remember. i remember the night before it was my best friend's twenty first birthday and i didn't go out and drink in i mean we went out and partied a little bit but i was so we're in kind of my head was in this place where i needed to learn this trick and i needed to focus on so you're in a coma yeah alone we can hath and then in and then i stayed in critical

care for three more weeks in then i was taken in an airplane from utah to denver where i spent. the following three and a half months in a rehab hospital relearning i mean i had to relearn out of walking talking now to learn how to swallow again and i had to learn everything from the start what was it like when you woke up. i don't remember waking up you know i don't have any or any memory of that time and what i mean older piece of my life i remember being taken in the airplane from the university you talk to craig hospital in denver and that's the first memory i have why did you do it while you were. because that's what i loved and that's where i had the most fun doing these streams are a bird pest away on that slope right and that same half is partially a top place a snowboard you know it's kind of a it's so weird how that happened to me and then that happen to sarah it's such

a fluke because that's like one of the best half lives in the world and that's like that mounties so well mazing and so it's just crazy how they both happened in that pipe when did you get a little bored again two years i waited two full years until i got back on the board and then i started writing again but you know more half lives and no jobs and none of that stuff just kind of powder and careful and smart and no competitive no no competitive what do you like about it i love the freedom in the feeling. the sense of just being able to go out and do whatever you want i mean there's nobody telling you anything there are no rules there are no limits there's no nothing on your snowboard it's all about you doing what you want when did you decide you wanted to compete that you wanted to be an olympian. you know i decided that i wanted to be an olympian weiser doing well in these events and it was a very slow progress and it was a very slow process or all know in vermont and then i moved out to mammoth

california and then it was around the world you know new zealand japan norway i went to greenland i went to everywhere i got to travel anywhere there was snow i won a beautiful glass is what it would have been the euro is so i ended up fracture i had an orbital fracture on my right eye when i landed i struck i struck my head in you know where i hit affected my eyes and so i had really serious serious i choose and i got eye surgery and now my eyes aren't as bad but they're still having some pretty bad problems when you drive i can drive you out you see you're right. when i'm when i'm still when i'm just sitting i'm good but like when i'm trying to be on our bodies in motion my my brain can't figure out how to align my eyes so everything goes double so there's two of everything you're very lucky did they get to you right away they did i was so weak strangely lucky that i was in park city

and that was i think they they found out i was one of today's the helicopter could have flown me to the university of utah which is one of the best hospitals in the country and in that helicopter going to flown that day due to weather i would have died if they if they still had to move you to denver if the yeah in then and that's where you know i've been so lucky because i've had all the best help you know the best you know neuro acute critical care and then the best rehab and then from there i got to come in and move in with my parents and have you know the best fell from my parents and it's just been kind of this crazy process and it's been four years now and i'm still healing in my brain is still getting better you know the job is done. we share the same. exciting time for her to.

leave. the us. and to sit with. a do. you know your nickname cab. the speed where you. really were. to still want to know were you actually. the cademy award nominated director director of the woman yeah listening yeah lucy walker made the film and told me the cloning thomas is more than just snowboarding right it is about you and your brother yeah you know it's about the film is so much more than snowboarding and you know it's kind of a great great explanation of you know what is possible when you're knocked down you know at the bottom i mean you saw that clip of how bad i was and then you know my family was there for me and you know my friends have been there for me and just

like what will happen when you have the right support team in the right help to come back in you can really recover from anything shaun white was a competitor of yours right yeah man shot we we battled it out there and we're that in here he has been with you and i used to change our relationship with him yeah i mean shon are still friends in you know he is so good at what he does this movie has spawned the love your brain campaign what is the use of the love shared on yeah so kind of this is where my kind of life has moved to and you know and i think that love is a great explanation of what this is and you know it's been so hard for me to love my brain and to love myself but the idea of this and the whole idea behind it is to inspire kids. in the educate people of the importance of lobbying the human brain and you know no matter what happens to or what's going on with you that you need to you know care for your brain and take care of it in you know just ultimately love

it what's the given piers. so they haven't piers found is you know what we've started now and we're selling these t. shirts and then my dad simon pierce makes hambone glass and we're selling a piece of glass that he makes in all of the funds and profits are going to help kids and it's just i've learned through this in going you know from this movie being made in everything that i've gone through how much suffering is really going on in this world now when you know how many people are really having a tough time with whatever it is you know down syndrome brain injuries whatever it is there are so many different things and i you know feel like that i have a great ability to help people and you know to help maybe to change you thought of those great glass where you see you gave me one of those it's really terrific and he's is he in california still in vermont no they're in vermont i'm actually going home to be with the family tomorrow and vermont for thanksgiving why did you move to california. sunny and it's warm and i got all them yesterday and they were all

freezing and it's snowing in vermont right now and i was like out on the beach is flying in from i think i don't know who love the snow i do and that's why i'm so excited to go home tomorrow to get to be with them and play in the snow has the snow is you know that's you know my favorite place that you miss competitive snowboarding. you know i do i say competitive snowboarding is what i love most in that scene though that was my true passion and what i had the most fun doing in the lose that is it's really hard not to have that anymore. are you not going to socially you know i am going to sochi and i don't know who you are yeah i got to go to moderate a pound speaking there and then we'll do some tapes there to ice i'm going to carry the torch for the opening ceremonies for the american team yeah i'll go and what good are we going to know what we're going to do. in snowboarding we're going to do really well you know i don't know about the other sports but you know that this is

no wording is you know the americans were at the top of the snowboarding if you've been to so she i never have it's a result i think yeah i don't know what's going on there but it's going to be i don't know even or atia i've been to moscow i have been to kiev been to you know but i know that the social you carrying the torch for the american team is it hard for you to watch of the snowboarders you know and it's not it's really fun for me to get to watch this sport progress and move forward and you know it's still moving forward in new stuff that is never been done before is happening and it's so fun to watch that and what are your plans to receive what you want to do yeah you know it's crazy larry just because my life is taken to such a change it was like i was on the set path and i was a cell boarder and i was competing and i was successful and that that was my life i never went to college i never did anything except snowboard and then i was in park city fellow had this accident and now i have to figure out what's next in you know

this love movement has been helping in giving back in you know giving support to people that are in such serious need of it has really been something that has really felt amazing to me you have a website yeah. kevin pearce stock com in love your brain dot com and piers dot com love your brain dot com and that's been awesome because to be able to sell this and help people and you know. give back it's just such a cool feeling you know amazing thanks phil and thanks for having me on that thank you to my guest kevin his for sharing his whooping story and make sure you check out kevin's documentary the crash reel and go to kevin and piers dot com to learn more about the kevin tears fund up next we need another inspiring athlete kevin lyle to stay with us. wealthy british style. time to.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. i marinate join me. for teams an impartial and financial reporting commentary contribute and much much. only on combust and on.

born with out a left on below the elbow kevin la overcame the odds are and a full basketball scholarship to division one might not intelligence his inspiring story is now coming to the big screen in documentary form the sixten kevin joins us now to chat about his film longshot the kevin lolla story while what was what were they called when you were born without a lower left arm. i call it a no it's a nickname but basically what happened wind bill coke or got a wrapped around my neck several times and cut off the circulation of the arm and i actually came out not breathing so they revived me and ironically it was on friday the thirteenth as well little fun fact but i was lucky you know the doctor said the umbilical cord could have taken off my neck so i was joking around about how it was a good price to pay did you ever think about can they build the attachment to it and give you an arm that's a good question a prosthetic limb

a great company out of the bay area and san francisco made a on for me about a sixty thousand dollar carbon fiber form electronic arm i was like the terminator like robocop for that it was amazing but but there's always the but i got it around the time i got a scholarship have been having college and i can say this now but my coach my athletic director bring me in their office is very awkward lee you know asked me like were to get the r. . and i told him and they're like heaven that's you know kind of like and see double a scholarship it's like in a sports car it gives you scholarship over it you know i love to play with that arm no i probably would be able to play with it but even receiving of it is in the morally grey area as though at the end where you would now that i can yeah yeah it's it's an interesting tool to tell me about growing up it was tough i had a tough childhood but parents divorced when i was five and you know i was you know a little awkward kid you know on one arm i'm

a giant i'm like six eleven now and the red hair didn't help any and my dad got cancer when i was about seven and ended up passing away when i was ten so i had a very difficult time at a young age i was five ten when i was ten years old too when usually it took the best google i did yeah i got cut from the seventh grade team originally and. you know couple coaches here in there put me in the right place to help me progress and . i fell in love with the sport and then did you can i school i did yes and then go to manhattan yeah i was your juniors i was a write about what happened was i progressed in progress in high school and i was in the super bowl dish in a sports illustrated my senior year and i was in my english class and i got a call from an area code outside what i'm used to with no number behind it and i picked up in class and they're like this is so and so from the white house and i hung up on that it was a pretty they called me back and sure enough it was and at the time george w.

bush was interested in meeting me i got to go to san francisco airport met him coming off air force one on the tarmac went back that same night high school game and i was a little late can warm up approached my lady i lost all my scholarship offers in the same day oh yeah and went to military school virginia for senior military academy after that to redeem scholarships and eventually get recruitment and college and how did you play there. for he neither manhattan deployment that was it was interesting obviously new york basketball is a whole different type of style but it i mean it was it was an experience the one levels very very difficult and challenging but you know we had a great crew and you know i love the guys and we but my junior year we did really really well you start started a couple games i was on and off my roommate every note brown he be

a potential he's one of those guys still there is you know he's a year younger than i was so you know you're battling with one of your best buddies for playing time that was an easy thing to do but they're like i was a great man would you major in business management ended up graduating in three years to see so tell me how you played well like i said i call this the no and it's basically all bone and you know i'm a dirty player on the courts but in the people coaches. so you give them a little nobody it's ok if they got to want to hand play with one hand yeah exactly play with one hand my idol bill walton then the cream of build a bar were kind of guys that i based my game upon actually at the pleasure meeting cream in new york not too long ago and i got to thank them for you know being an inspiration to me. great guy there was a day. or two had a bad as you couldn't yeah hard to catch the ball not for me really i mean i always argued. prospectively i don't know what it's like to have two arms so i do the best

with you know what i have and you know i don't find it very difficult at all but other people in the audience you know college coaches recruits whoever you know are just blown away and amazed that i can do you know what they say they can't basically you know but i think it's a blessing in disguise itself time rebounding not at all i was best at blocking shots of rebounding to get the ball up pretty well and bring it down when i needed to and i could pawn the ball very easily you know having one hand i had to learn to have basically perfect footwork you know which help you position rebound you envious of your friends. for having two hands you know there was times you know up and down i'm human like anybody else roy williams once told me he shook my hand and he said son if you had two arms you'd be a first draft pick and that was in ways you know the best and worst thing i've ever

heard because it was like wow this guy's you know legendary it was so nice of him you know to think that much about my game but at the same the same time i can't do anything about having one hand i didn't know if you would have been left handed or right handed supposed to be left handed i would then know that the doctors kind of figured out a first bill corbin around my left arm and i kick with my left foot and all really would have been a wall and it actually kind of helped with coordination to although i'm naturally better with my left side obviously had to learn to do everything with the right so i was being a little pitcher jim abbott jim avenue jim i interviewed of guys name i think it's you know whether he did for the yankees i trowe that hero and all i love the great guy. they said don't be your childhood role model for me it was the best thing ever i said i would think he's the most genuine character you came out with

a book last year and so i made a copy to one of my heroes kevin law and you know he gave me the time of day i met him several times is wonderful man tell me about the documentary documentaries called the long shot and we filmed it for about four and a half years the director frank martin you know picked it up and started filming me around sophomore junior high school and neither one of us knew at the time you know it was going to progress as it did in my story would you know become wondered speier you know millions you know we didn't know at the end of the day that i was going to get a d. one scholarship i mean it's everybody's goal is as an athlete in high school to play in the collegiate level but you know it took the chance on film in the movie and you know caught me breaking my leg meeting bush this and that and so everyone knows each other so everything is in the film including you know some pieces with my dad are in a relationship with him as well so i don't want to give too much away but it's a little bit of a tear jerker and this is for a big screen films that. i select theaters and we just aired it out my hometown as

the first training and believe the experience because you know a lot of people actually in the film you know i had seen it and it got to and the whole story and i was just listening to it thank you so much for exactly. just as a walk on deal with the florida gators as want to you know almost even play i texted him this morning you know he just said something to me that was. probably one of the best things i ever heard he said kevin you've been my role model and you're the reason i got into the school and you know for me being the first one player you know i had to deal with all these different obstacles you know with recruits and this and that but at the end of the day i can sleep all night knowing that i open the door for people that same similar i was a little he's a walk off you. yes but man i kid is a stud let me tell you i've seen clips on we're different positions and that kid was and he's going to scholarship of florida. he's he's a guard i'm not sure exactly what god would want to believe will believe will that

kid and that's a good program yeah he did it was awful rob yeah a. really good school like you know i'm going to do my best to mentor him and help him anyway i don't he's the coach yeah that's great we were unfairly treated on the court how were you treated by opponents depends on the opponents. having one on. person would come out and be like i have a day off for you to play the crippled kid you know it's you know that's the sex is always like playing a girl you know people come out underestimating me from the get go which i used to my advantage you know i come out and play hard for me any in the you know i surprised them you know there is quite a few players that really just didn't like playing against me and i i give people welts with this thing i don't blame them by any means the rough player that i had the you know you use what you had in these guys very strong very sharp lethal weapon you know the schools look at you yeah i had a quite

a few schools look at me unfortunately my academics on like most students worked against me do you want schools really didn't want to give me a chance you know coach is going to fire this and that. i had pretty you know strong academic grades in high school that rubinstein you need and want to give me back academic scholarship partial scholarship this and that and the graduate of the story that you're going to do what are you going to do with your life doing motivational speaking now flying over the world spoke at the u.n. general assembly room last year and going to the philippines and taiwan pretty soon you know just to share my story motivating others and unbelievable experience and what do you tell them depending on the audience but it's really my testimony i mean i've been through so much and you know i never asked to be but you know if you persevere in life and you try hard enough and overcome what you need to really nothing is out of reach always most every school. it was really fun.

while it was blue take someone with that's a good question i went there for the bill the basketball program and coach fletcher error there is absolutely edge in for basketball school was a fork union military academy based in virginia and the motto there it's the worst place to be the best place to be from and that's. one of the yeah it's stuff always life in new york city for you believe it will i mean when you run into people like lima do the bar in june here are these people its biggest classroom on the world and i had quite a bit of media attention out there and i'll never forget the day a firefighter was on a fire truck going through times square with the lights on and a guy in the back of the truck one of the firemen pointed at me in times square is like kevin and you know that's that's when i just knew you know new york was just like that it's now since you don't have an c.w. story about would you take it off you know i have it to be honest for me it's

a little a little unusual i don't know prospectively if you can imagine holding a broomstick at the end of your arm and trying to be coordinated with it i don't know if that's a good analogy or not but i don't know if you and says have a day they did yeah and it's not for everybody but at the same time it's there are amazing i mean amazing expressions for warriors in this in that my issue is that i've never had two arms so it's i don't feel like i'm missing anything so i use my my arm here almost like a hand or an extra palm so it is ok if you had two arms you still feel like you have an arm and people lose a leg they still feel like they have a leg and you have no feeling it can't relate feeling at all the kids make fun of you or understand it was. i was tough you know growing up i was bullied a little bit i mean everybody teased to an extent i was just a bigger target for it unfortunately but you know my mom very blessed to have her my life you know she she gave me a certain mentality just not listen do it i carry that on throughout basketball in

athletics as well i didn't lead to get affecting you know one quick story high school game i was on the free throw line and the whole other team's crowd basically put all their arms in their sleeve and there are a you know we're in the know this and you know and i mean i should i was funny i was laughing and chris made a free throw but at a school assembly and the principal was using the newspaper and it was a horrible ordeal but they're a great story kevin can't wait to see them so much for everything's really a pleasure kevin while the movie is a long shot like kevin love story look at this document it will be and so likely it is throughout los angeles and new york and then hopefully wide everywhere something i can't wait to see and you can find me on twitter at kings things will see you next time.

i know c.n.n. m s n b c news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close it's a bit different from mine i think. it's because one politician and the mainstream media works side by side with you actually on you look. at our team we have a different right. because the news of the world just is not. this funny i'm not like damnit i'm not. going. to the jokes will handle the stuff.

there i marinate this is boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. we're talking a merger markets today on the show that's for sure author blogger and former chief economist at u.b.s. george magnus joined me earlier today from our london studio where he explained why and what is going on in the emerging economies it was a fantastic interview and you're won't want to miss a check that out then in today's big deal and harrison i've got something pretty important to all you coffee drinkers out there the market for your morning addiction is being messed with we'll tell you all about it let's not was not a second sign up for the show.