His college basketball career is up in the air, but Jeremy Hazell just feels lucky after surviving a Christmas night shooting.
"I knew I got shot," the Seton Hall senior guard told the New York Daily News on Monday. "I felt it, but I just kept running."
Four men tried to rob Hazell as the New York City native was returning home from a Christmas party in Harlem.
"It was scary. I didn't know these guys -- never saw them before," he said, according to the newspaper. "They just tried to rob me. I never knew something like this could happen to me."
Hazell already has had adversity this year, but nothing compared to this. He had been averaging 24 points per game before going down with a wrist injury last month.
?I knew I got shot. I felt it, but I just kept running.
? -- Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell
"I just got to the front door of my building when these four dudes came up to me," Hazell said, according the Daily News. "One of them had a hand in his pocket and told me to sit down on this bench. I didn't want to, and he said if I didn't he was going to shoot me."
Hazell told the newspaper that he pushed one of the men in the chest and ran. He heard four shots being fired and knew that one of them hit him. Hazell saw a FDNY ambulance and flagged it down.
The bullet had penetrated his right side below the armpit and exited his body.
"They worked on me there and then took me to the hospital," he told the newspaper.
Hazell was treated at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, kept overnight for observation and released.
"We're all thankful Jeremy is OK," first-year coach Kevin Willard said, according to the newspaper. "You hear news like that and the first thing you think is, 'How bad is it?' "
Hazell had wrist surgery Dec. 2 and was expected to miss four to six weeks. Willard now says the 6-foot-5 guard might redshirt this season.
Hazell isn't freaking out about missing the basketball season, though.
"I just feel very lucky, very blessed," he said, according to the Daily News.
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