Alex Schipper aims to get back in the game

Alex Schipper is back.

The promising basketball player has made a miraculous recovery after he was injured in a hit-and-run accident outside the TECT Arena in late 2011.

His leg was shattered and it wasn't certain if he would ever play basketball again. But Alex, 17, is once again shooting hoops.

"I can jog a little bit. I can only take half steps. I'm at the back [defending] so I let my teammates run off and score because I'm restricted by my knee. So I stand at the back and block but I've done two dunks already," Alex says, beaming.

"The surgeons told me it would be 18 months before I would get back to where I was but my goal date is July. I want to be 100 per cent and I think I'll be able to do it," he said.

Alex wants to be at full-strength for the premiership competition in September.

If his team is selected, Alex will head to the national competition three weeks later and play in front of scouts.

"That's were I was at last year. I want to get a second chance," he said.

Alex has returned to the court for two representative games for the Under 19 Tauranga team. In his first game back he was given two minutes per quarter, which frustrated him but he understood why.

"When it comes to the game, I don't focus on the pain. I focus more on what I can do than what I can't. I find it hurts more the next day, not when I'm playing," he said.

"I think I might be overdoing it a little bit. I do go hard but I don't go my hardest."

At 2.08m, Alex was regarded by the Breakers as one of the top four young defensive players in the country.

The week before the accident, Alex was selected to take part in an elite Under 20s summer camp for rising basketball stars. He never got the chance to attend.

The night of the accident, Alex watched his heroes, the Breakers, play at TECT Arena. He was on his way home when he was hit head-on by Jonathan Martelli in the carpark outside.

Alex, who was riding a scooter, flipped onto the car's bonnet before being thrown to the ground as the car sped off from the scene. His right leg was shattered.

In Tauranga Hospital, Alex had surgery on his knee and a titanium rod was inserted the length of his shin. He spent six weeks in a wheelchair and six weeks on crutches. His passion for the game and commitment to getting better aided in his fast recovery, along with physio appointments to strengthen his muscles.

"I lost a lot of muscle so that's restricting me to run. I'm not as fast as I was, I'm not as capable and right now I don't feel like I'm good enough.

"It's my fitness and muscles that are holding me back. I need to jump a bit more. I've missed a few [hoops] but I've got a few too and I can tell I've improved so much since that first game."

In January, Martelli lost his licence for a year when he was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.