LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – On the basketball court, you don’t realize what Josiah Johnson sees until you sit down and become conscious of it. What he sees is a jumble of legs, feet, knees, squeaking sneakers around the bouncing ball. He is surrounded by a chaotic chorus line of kicking and cutting and jumping.

Josiah Johnson moves in the midst of all of it, but he is different.

He was born without legs.

The sight of him on the court, being introduced in the starting lineup for Moore Middle School in Thursday night’s game against Thomas Jefferson School, will stop you in your tracks. And yet by now at Moore, Johnson has become less a curiosity than a complement to the basketball program.

With powerful arms, he propels himself across the court, swinging his torso to pick up speed, balancing on one hand when he has to dribble. And everybody on the team will tell you, the kid can shoot.

Johnson says he has never known anything else. He learned to move in his own way, the same way most babies learned to crawl. He just had to keep at it. He grew up with the stares and the discomfort of being different. But you’ll seldom find any eighth-grader as at home in his own skin, and at peace with his situation, as Johnson.

After he made the team at Moore Middle, and more people heard his story via a video put out by Jefferson County Public Schools, people started telling him that his story brings them hope and inspiration and the feeling that any obstacle can be overcome.

“It's cool having people look up to you and think you’re an inspiration and stuff,” Johnson said. “But it comes with, like, a lot of things and stuff. So, it's just like, exciting, but nerve-wracking at the same time.”

At a young age, Johnson tried gymnastics. And in grade school, he tried out for the school’s basketball team, but didn’t make it. He thought that might be his fate again when he went out this year.

IMAGES | Josiah Johnson, middle school basketball player with no legs, takes the court

“At first when I was trying out, I was like, ‘If I don't make it, I don't make it.’ Nothing against the coaches or whatever,” Johnson said. “But when I made the first cut, I was like, ‘I might as well try to make the team now.’ Luckily, I did.”

Though he didn’t find out right away. Moore coach Daquan Boyd said the staff had inadvertently left some names off the list. When Johnson’s wasn’t on it, current players didn’t like it. It wasn’t a middle school version of Rudy, but they did want him on the team.

For just a moment, Johnson had the feeling of being back at the community center where he grew up playing.

“People doubt you and won’t pick you up for games, because I have no legs or whatever,” he said.

But soon, the good news was delivered, that he would be on the eighth grade varsity.

“When I finally made the team I was I was really excited,” Johnson said. “Actually, like, I acted like I wasn't excited in front of the coach. But when I went to gym, I was excited. I was like, ‘I made the team! I made the team!’ I wanted my teammates to know.”

To watch Johnson play is to appreciate the human spirit, and this particular human’s determination. He deflects balls. He gets steals. On Thursday night, he grabbed a steal that led to a fast break, grabbed a rebound, and got an assist on the offensive end, though he missed a few shots.

Johnson’s teammates value his presence, and his perseverance.

“A good friend you know,” said eighth grader Jalen White. “Talks a whole lot of smack in basketball. He can back it up though. You know, he makes you laugh.”

White met Johnson in kindergarten, but was surprised when he saw him take up basketball for the first time.

“I thought, he's actually doing it,” White said. “He don't care what nobody says. I don't think he cares what anybody thinks about him or none of that. He just sort of fights hard and does what he wants to do.”

Another teammate, Dexter McAtee, has been in school with Johnson since they started at Price Elementary.

“We had PE class, mostly in the same class,” he said. “And he surprised me. But I was like, ‘He's just like the rest of us.’ I really thought of him just like me. I really didn't think of him with no legs. I thought he was the same.”

And when he started playing basketball, McAtee said, “He could dribble. He could shoot. He had skills that some kids out there didn’t actually have.”

Malakei Loveless, an eighth grade teammate, said he didn’t encounter Johnson until a year ago.

“At first, I didn’t think he was going to get on the court,” Loveless said. “But when he got on the court, he was hitting threes and stealing the ball from people. . . . He’ll take the ball from anybody. . . . He makes practices fun, even the hard ones, and makes you want to work harder, no matter what the struggle. He’s a threat to teams we play. They’re caught off guard. They don’t know what he can do.”

Boyd said that he wouldn’t have put Johnson on the team had he not worked so hard in tryouts and earned it.

“We treat them like everyone else,” Boyd said. “He shows up every day. If we have to do sprints or something like that, he runs them, too. So that's very exciting to see him actually get out there and do everything that they try to do. It's definitely a blessing. I love it, actually. As you see, people are hearing his story and he's getting publicity, which is really good for him. . . . I feel like he’s a big inspiration for people. He’s inspiring me. I’ve been knowing him since he was a baby. So, yeah, he’s always inspired me.”

“It really is amazing. Seeing him hit half-court shots, and practice after practice and stuff like that, seeing him be able to knock down actual three balls consistently, it's very exciting, especially with him having to deal with the stuff that he deals with right now. He just shows up and does everything we ask him to do. He doesn't complain or anything.”

At home, Johnson says his mother is his motivation. She’s constantly talking to him about getting better, doesn’t even mind if he dribbles a ball down the hallway at all hours. Asked what goals he has, Johnson said he wanted to win a middle school championship with his team. And he wants to improve with his right hand.

Pretty simple. And entirely uplifting.

“I just felt like it was something I had to do. I don’t want you doubting me because I have no legs,” he said. “I want to show you that I’m just as human as you are, and just as good as you are.”

Asked if he has a message for others, Johnson kept it short: “Prove your doubters wrong.”

You don’t have to have legs, you see, to stand tall.

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