THE alleged “King of Three’s” on TikTok, Stephen Ludwig, also known as ‘Stevo’, is a 5ft 1" basketball player who was born with a condition called Maffucci syndrome. It is a bone disease that has meant his left leg is shorter than his right by nine inches and one of his arms is shorter than the other. In efforts to accommodate the height differences, Stevo started wearing a platform boot and became so engaged with it, that surgery wasn’t necessary. Due to the similarity in symptoms, he grew up believing he had ‘Aleyes’ syndrome, until recently being diagnosed in his adult life with Maffucci syndrome. As a child, he was also diagnosed with Myeloid Leukaemia at the age of seven and given only 11% chance of survival. Despite the various battles he has faced, whether it is playing golf with his Dad, Mike, or shooting hoops, Stevo turned to sports as an “outlet” and claims that it quickly became the “culprit to his confidence” and made him feel “alive.” With inspiration from the late NBA legend, Kobe Bryant, the funny 24-year-old was encouraged to play basketball with a “leg up” on the competitive sport and share his story with the world.
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