The Legend of Gabe Whiteman

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Gabe Whiteman, a 4th-grader who plays for the Binghamton 6th-grade basketball team, last weekend, smack dab in the middle of the season-ending YMCA Winter Blast Tournament, crushed a finger on his left hand while building a fort at home. A slab of wood slammed down on his hand, ripping the fingernail nearly clean off.

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The incident happened an hour before Gabe was to play in a CYO game. So Gabe and his dad, Binghamton-6 assistant coach Tim Whiteman, bandaged the finger and headed off to play. Gabe dropped 20 points in just a little more than half a game, his CYO squad winning the contest, 36-19. Gabe also limited the opponent's leading scorer to 2 points before a game official required his CYO coaches to remove him from the game because the finger was bleeding through the bandages.

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Later that same day, Gabe was forced to miss Binghamton-6's two tourney games because he was stuck in the ER getting X-rays. Turns out the finger wasn't just nasty to look at. It was broken, too.

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But the next morning, his Binghamton-6 team facing a rematch with Seton-6, Gabe wrapped the hand again and went to work. He scored 5 points, grabbed 2 rebounds and had a steal while being assigned to guard SCC's top scorer. Binghamton won, 61-59.

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The Legend of Gabe Whiteman grows, as this weekend his team won its division in the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition. Gabe and his OM teammates will now compete at the state level.

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So why does a 4th-grader wear his hair like that? Here's your answer. (Yes. Really.)