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Church basketball league players wear "J" on jerseys to honor friend who died on court

252 views · Published 18 January 2018 · 1:56 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2018 · News & Politics

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MASON, Ohio (WKRC) – Three weeks after Dr. Javier El-Bietar collapsed on the basketball court and died, the men he used to play with honor him on the opening night of winter league play. 

For the last two years, El-Bietar played in the Tuesday night basketball league at First Baptist Church in Mason. 

On December 19th, the fall league was finishing up when El-Bietar fell to the floor.

"All the sudden he collapsed, so we stopped our game and we ran over there and I called 911 right away. They had us rolling him over and started giving him CPR,” said Ryan Driscoll.

Driscoll organizes the league and plays in it. He says El-Bieter who everyone called "Javi" was one of the more well-liked players in the league.

“I would call him one of the faces of our league. everybody know who Javi was I knew when you got the ball he was gonna shoot,” said Pastor Bill Mountsier. “He was a regular here, he started when we had open gyms and then we started the league about a year ago he quickly joined a team. I got to play with him last year and he was actually one of the favorites, very vocal, was a real hustler and everybody really enjoyed him and we will miss him, going to miss him tonight. “

As the winter season begins, the roughly 50 guys all have new jerseys. On them the letter "J" for Javier.

El-Bietar was a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

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