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"You didn't have to be a college hoops fan to get a healthy dose of sports in your Twitter stream on Sunday. Perhaps you saw the name \"Kevin Ware\" trending worldwide, or the hashtag #PrayForWare popping up here and there. \nConfused? Here's the deal: In one of the most horrific sports injuries ever seen, University of Louisville guard Kevin Ware essentially snapped his right leg in half during a March Madness game on Sunday. Since then, the story has played out largely on social media. Outpourings of support have come from fans, celebrities and other players. An imposter profile pretending to be the injured player was shut down by Twitter. And updates from Louisville staff have helped give the heart-wrenching turn of events positive lining as Ware begins his recovery. \nBut first off, here below is video of Ware's injury. Be warned: It's extremely graphic , and you'll see why some of his teammates on the floor were reduced to tears after the play.\n\nAlmost immediately, Ware became a trending topic on Twitter as video of the injury went viral online. Ex-NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, who suffered a similarly violent leg injury as a player 1985, tweeted his condolences, as did others including the rapper Wale, paralyzed former football player Eric LeGrand and college basketball star Skylar Diggins. \n\nWatching Duke/ Louisville my heart goes out to Kevin Ware.\n\u2014 Joe Theismann (@Theismann7) March 31, 2013\n\n\nMan ... God Bless Kevin Ware his family friends and teammates . Heartbreaking\n\u2014 Wale Folarin(@Wale) March 31, 2013\n\n\nJust watched what happened to Kevin Ware definitely sending my prayers up for you man\n\u2014 Eric LeGrand (@EricLeGrand52) March 31, 2013\n\n\nPrayers go out the Kevin Ware\n\u2014 Skylar Diggins (@SkyDigg4) March 31, 2013\n\nNearly 24 hours later over on Reddit, Ware-related posts still occupied the top five spots on the /r/sports subreddit. \nBut the gruesome spectacle also served to showcase the darker side of social media. Following Ware's injury, the Twitter account @KevinWare_5 dpicked up thousands of followers while tweeting inspirational messages and thanking followers for support. One post \u2014 reading \"Thnx for the thoughts and prayers everybody. I\u2019ll be fine. All I\u2019m thinking about is the Cardinals getting the W!\" \u2014 became especially popular as socially-minded sports fans shared it around the web. \nSounds nice, right? There was just one problem: the account was a fake inexplicably set up to somehow capitalize on Ware's misfortune. Twitter banned the account Monday morning. (Here's Ware's actual,  Twitter page.)\nAppropriately enough for a story that spread virally online and included a number of social media angles, Louisville sports information director Kenny Klein used Twitter to give the saga of Ware's broken leg a happy ending \u2014 at least for the time being. Here's Ware standing on crutches following surgery:\n\nLouisville G Kevin Ware up and moving on crutches today after surgery to repair a broken leg yesterday #L1C4 twitter.com/KKcards/status\u2026\n\u2014 Kenny Klein (@KKcards) April 1, 2013\n\nAnd here's Ware with coach Rick Pitino and the trophy Louisville won for beating Duke in Sunday's game and earning a berth in the Final Four:\n\nLouisville Coach Rick Pitino and Richard Pitino visit guard Kevin Ware at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis today twitter.com/KKcards/status\u2026\n\u2014 Kenny Klein (@KKcards) April 1, 2013\n\nLouisville will play Wichita State on Saturday for a spot in Monday night's national title game. Ware, meanwhile, will potentially return to the court next season. \nPhoto by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/04/01/kevin-ware-injury/>