A Near Death Experience
April 9, 2025
The next time you get upset during your pickleball match over an unforced error or bad call, thinking about what happened to a pickleball ambassador named Gary Link might put things in perspective.
Gary Link’s truck flipped three times. He was ejected through the rear window.
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On May 12, 2020, a woman driving 68 miles per hour in a 45-mph zone near Greenville, South Carolina, rear-ended Gary’s Toyota Tacoma. His truck flipped over three times, he was ejected through the rear window, went through two fences and landed, investigators said, 400 feet from the point of impact.
You might need to read that last sentence again.
Especially since Gary lived to talk about it, and, miraculously, play pickleball.
Of course his injuries were horrific. The most serious were a traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, multiple pelvic fractures and a crushed left shoulder. Gary, who recently turned 62, also had severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. That would be expected after flying hundreds of feet through the air and crashing through two fences.
“My only memory is telling a young lady who was holding my hand [at the scene] to not let go,” Gary tells me from his home in the Greenville suburb of Taylors, where he was born and raised.
“Immediately after the accident my family was notified to be at the hospital quickly. The hospital restricted all visitors including family due to Covid regulations, so they waited in the parking lot to receive hourly updates on my condition. After nine hours of the physicians treating the internal bleeding, my family was told I would live,” Gary said.
What was going through his mind? “Honestly, I just wanted to live,” he says. “I only wanted to be with my son, who was 27 at the time.”
(Being a father to an only child is why Gary suddenly quit a six-figure job in software development after 27 years. He was on a business trip in 2009 in California when his son Austin called, excited about scoring 16 points in a freshmen basketball game. Gary was despondent over missing the game. He returned home, gave notice, and took a job as the tennis manager at a country club, making less than half the salary Ahe made in software. But he was at peace because could spend more time with his son.)
Adding insult to life-threatening injuries, the 22-years-old woman whose car rammed into Gary’s truck was not charged with reckless driving, allegedly due to the good ol’ boy network. She got only a speeding ticket. “Her family knew someone in law enforcement,” Gary claims.
Gary endured a grueling rehabilitation. “I was in a wheelchair and walker for 14 months,” he says. “I had to wear a halo around my waist for six months to give my pelvis time to mend and the artificial hardware to hold. The most difficult part of rehab was losing the ability to bathe myself and having others help me with daily needs.
“I still experience PTSD symptoms from the accident. All in the forms of loud sounds. Sounds from construction equipment, loud mufflers, motorcycles, etc. Loud sounds bring a freezing sensation over my entire body. Therapy is helping me through this,” Gary says.
Miraculously, Gary was back on the pickleball court in April 2022, playing and teaching less than two years after the crash.
He first played pickleball in 2017. “Pickleball was a perfect fit. Having played ping pong and tennis competitively I saw pickleball as another fun challenge.”
Gary was a terrific tennis and ping pong player for years before getting into pickleball. He played singles in six to eight tennis tournaments a year at the 4.0 level. “I was very competitive but with no formal lessons I was self-taught, which meant my athleticism compensated for average technique,” Gary says.
He was a US Tennis Association official for junior and adult tournaments for 26 years and once was named Official of the Year in South Carolina.
He became a good pickleball player quickly. His DUPR is 4.5. He’s a’ certified pickleball instructor and conducts instructor certification workshops. He plays only once a week these days because he spends most of his time being the guy for all your pickleball needs in the Greenville
area. Paddles, lessons, you name it, see Gary. He also coordinates pickleball leagues.
“Gary is just one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet,” says Jack Howard, a 78-year-old retired attorney who with his wife Pam took pickleball lessons from Gary. “As an instructor he’s very tolerant and extremely knowledgeable.”
Gary spends much of his time selling paddles in a brick and mortar store and online. He truly enjoys finding the right paddle for a buyer’s play style and level. “I didn’t want to get into the transactional business. I wanted to get into the relationship business,” he says. “My advice to beginner and intermediate players is to avoid ‘SOS. Shiny Object Syndrome.’ There’s no such thing as the best paddle. There’s only the best paddle for you.
“I love serving my community through my pickleball business,” Gary says. “My priority is building healthy relationships and helping others. Selling paddles is secondary.”
Gary giving a lesson this week at Tryon Park Recreation Center in Greer, SC
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Gary is excited to be partnering with BaselineGVL, a 16-court indoor pickleball facility scheduled to open in Greenville later this year. His store will be located there once the courts open.
Regarding the crash, Gary says, “Five years later and it still seems unreal and hasn’t sunk in yet. I learned so many life lessons from the accident. Prior to it I would wait for the right time for certain things, [such as] getting a pet, taking a trip. I learned to turn my ‘One day’ into ‘Day 1.’
“Don’t wait,” Gary Link says. “You’re not guaranteed tomorrow.”
Something to think about when you’re upset over an unforced error or a bad call in a pickleball game.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· I can’t remember a men’s college basketball Final Four in which all three games were as good as this past weekend’s. Both of Saturday’s games and Monday night’s national championship won by Florida over Houston, 65-63, went down to the final seconds. In Duke’s loss to Houston in the semi-finals, the over the back call against Blue Devil star Cooper Flagg was brutal. It was a terrible call that cannot be made with 19 seconds left. The call led to the game-winning free throws for Houston. The Cougars of course deserve credit for their amazing comeback.
· The University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team won the school’s 12th national championship on Sunday, routing South Carolina, 82-59. I admire the program but not Coach Geno Auriemma’s long-standing habit of leaving his starters in much too long in blowouts. On Sunday, Auriemma didn’t empty the bench until 1:32 remained and his team up by 29. Would it kill Auriemma to show some sportsmanship and also give his reserves maybe three minutes of playing time?
· I switch pickleball paddles too often but have been playing almost exclusively again lately with the Hudef Viva Pro Gen 3. As the reviewers Dustin Fowkes and Farmer Lanky have said, the paddle “hits like a truck” yet has great control.
· I keep hearing from other senior pickleball players that they don’t enter tournaments because there aren’t enough 65-year-old and older players entered and they have to play against guys in their 40’s and 50’s. And sandbagging is also common. Two reasons why I don’t play in tournaments. Another reason is that some tournament directors care a lot more about making money than running a quality event.
· The NFL draft starts April 24th. I enjoy watching the first round but catch up with the rest of it on my phone. But you couldn’t pay me to spend a minute reading or watching any mock drafts.
· A new documentary, Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story, airs Friday on truTV and will be streaming on Max. The doc explores the incredible rise of pickleball but as movie critic Bill Arceneaux said, “Most of it is made up of behind-the-scenes corporate back and forth that’s less relative to the game itself and more of a neurotic breakdown involving money and status.” Arceneaux called the film, “Strange and compelling.”
Hudef gives away a new paddle to the first person who emails its sales department the correct answer to one question at the end of my first blog of every month. The question in last week’s column was: “In my February 14th blog, I wrote about my interview with Ben Johns for Pickleball Magazine and subsequently meeting him. What snack food did Johns say he is addicted to?
The answer: Goldfish Crackers.
Rajasekaran Babu was the first person to email the correct answer. The Little Rock, Arkansas resident wins the Hudef Viva Pro Gen 3 paddle, which retails for $169.99.
Remember, if you buy any Hudef paddle that costs $169.99, use my discount code MS30 to knock down the price by 30%, to $119.99. Any less expensive paddle, the code is MS15, giving you 15% off.