Teen uses basketball skills to raise money for best friend injured in football accident

Best friends since the sixth grade, Marcos San Miguel and Jordan Sloan discovered over the last 18 months just how strong their bond is.

The Atlanta residents connected over sports — San Miguel is a star on the basketball court, and Sloan on the football field. In September 2020, Sloan took a hit to the head during a game and was rushed to the hospital, where he was placed on a ventilator. He sustained brain-stem trauma, and ever since the accident, has been working on regaining his mobility and strength.

Doctors are preparing to remove his tracheotomy, and Sloan is now able to move all of his body parts. Six days a week, he goes to rehabilitation sessions, with the goal of being able to one day play sports again. The entire time, San Miguel has been cheering his best friend on from the sidelines, and found a way to support him through basketball.

San Miguel began taking pledges for every charge he took in a basketball game, in order to give Sloan's family the money necessary to buy items not covered by insurance, like a manual wheelchair and reformer machine. "I really wanted just to do whatever I could to help," San Miguel told CBS News. "He would have done something similar for me."

So far, San Miguel has raised more than $14,800. Sloan's mother, Jasmine Jamieson, is grateful for the way San Miguel stepped up to help, and said she doesn't know "if I will ever be able to really thank him. I will try for the rest of my life."