Re: Terry's ailing mother wouldn't miss NBA Finals <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MIAMI ? They talk about death because it has become part of their lives. Even in the swelter of these NBA Finals, the subject is addressed by Andrea Cheatham to her son, Dallas point guard Jason Terry.They talk about it because the possibility of it is real and the mom doesn't want to hide anything from her son and doesn't want him to be afraid.They talk about it because the family already has lost a child this year, 9-year-old Imani Horne, the oldest of Cheatham's nine grandchildren and Terry's niece.Andrea Cheatham should be in a hospital this week, not in Miami. She should be far away from the perfervid tension of the NBA Finals.She should be in bed back in Seattle, recovering from two recent surgeries, not sitting with her family at American Airlines Arena, some 10 rows behind the Mavericks' bench.She should be far from this madding series. Instead she is so close, she can feel every elbow, every lead change, every sweet win and even Tuesday's disappointing loss.Cheatham is severely anemic. She suffers from hypertension and congestive heart problems.In the last month, she says, she has had a heart procedure, and last week she had stomach surgery. After the Finals, she will return to Seattle and to the hospital for as many as six weeks of treatment.Almost matter of factly, she says she could die this week watching these Finals. And bravely, she says, "I have accepted that fact."Her son has accepted the fact that his mom is going to live her life on her terms."I've already prayed for her health," Terry said before Wednesday's practice. "I think the best remedy for her health right now is to be here at the games. She can just sit back and watch the games and be in the arena. That's what she likes best anyway."What she's going through kind of puts the games into perspective for me. You realize there's life and issues going on outside of basketball. But this is her greatest joy, being able to see me trying to achieve something we've worked so hard for my whole career."But as the family shares these thrilling moments, watching the Mavs take a 2-1 lead over Miami and watching Terry run the Dallas offense on the game's greatest stage, they also acknowledge that the family matriarch is seriously ill."Jason's trying to stay upbeat about it," Cheatham said Wednesday in her four-star hotel room. "But he worries a lot. I've tried to tell him that if I pass, this would be the perfect place for me. To be in a gym, watching him playing basketball. I've said, 'If I go, this is where I want to be.' "Terry, who played at Franklin High School before accepting a scholarship to Arizona, has flown about 20 family members to Miami for the week. All of Cheatham's children are here, and the pleasure of having her family around her is obvious in her voice."Watching Jason play, with all my family around, I'm just so filled with joy," said Cheatham, the mother of 10. "I'm so proud of him. When we sit in the stands, I have so many people come up to me and tell me not just what a good player he is but what a good citizen he is and how helpful he is. When I'm watching him play, it's like I'm enjoying the fruits of my labors."Terry calls his mother a gym rat. He said if she weren't at the Finals, she'd be in a gym somewhere in Seattle watching the next generation of Jason Terrys and reporting back to her son on their progress.A Metro bus driver in Seattle for 27 years, Cheatham made sure she was at all of her son's games. She played at Lincoln High School in Tacoma and stayed active in the game through her son.She drove him to the Rotary Boys and Girls Club, to various community centers in Seattle's Central District, to practices at Franklin."Jason didn't start playing until he was 13," she said, "and when I first saw him play, oh my God, he wasn't that good. But he played with a lot of energy. He was all over the court. I knew he loved it and he had some raw skill, and he just kept working at it."In the tiny gyms around Seattle, a dream began to form, possibilities began to emerge.Terry used to look east, out the picture window in his living room, across Lake Washington, and joke with his mother that some day he would buy her a house on the Eastside. They laughed about waterfront property and kidded each other about owning a home where everybody had a bedroom.Three years ago, Terry told his mother to start looking. And two years ago, she moved into a seven-bedroom home on Mercer Island.Still, with all of the joy Terry has been able to share with his family this season, there also has been much sorrow.In March, his niece Imani died. Terry is dedicating this championship run to her. He writes her name on his sneakers before every game and has her name tattooed on his chest."Jason has a lot of extra stuff on his plate right now," Cheatham said. "But he's so humble and has so much faith that he will make it through all of this."There is game pressure, and there are the real pressures of life. Terry is experiencing the most dramatic of both. It is easy to say he is used to it. After all, when he was 16, he was his mother's birthing coach when his little sister Lyric was born.That morning, when his mother went into labor, he drove his brothers and sisters to school, then went to the hospital to assist in Lyric's delivery.But life and death never is easy, and nobody gets used to tragedy."There's not a moment that goes by that I don't think about Imani," Terry said. "I always think about playing as hard as I can for her and thinking that she's smiling down on me. I mean, I've had to realize that everyday life is a lot more pressure packed than what I'm facing in these Finals."Don't take me wrong, though, this is a pressure-filled environment. There's a lot riding on this. But let's put it all in reality. This is still just a game."And Andrea Cheatham will watch these games and her son and know this is where she belongs ? in the gym, which always has felt like home.</div> Wow, his dying mother is actually staying to watch games. He isn't dissapointing. :closedeyes:
Re: Terry's ailing mother wouldn't miss NBA Finals Man that sucks for her. A title would be great to win for her.
Re: Terry's ailing mother wouldn't miss NBA Finals ^ You could have put that in one post. What a spammer.I think this is really good, it just gives me more reasons to cheer for Dallas. If they lose I'm not watching NBA (outside of raptors) next year. Go Mavs!
Re: Terry's ailing mother wouldn't miss NBA Finals Woah, Raptors fan cheering on the Mavs? Lol, nice...it's okay, man...lotsa people Dallas homer....so yeah
