Have The Rival Team's Owner As The 1st Jersey Hangin In Your Rafters, Brehs: (3)Heat Vs. (6)Hornets
- Thread starter Morose Polymath
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Just copped two tickets to tomorrow's game
Ticketmaster put a $50 service charge on them
Ticketmaster put a $50 service charge on them
A remarkable family affair for Whiteside in Charlotte
Before the game, Hassan Whiteside looked for them in their seats, just to check. There they all were, too. There was the uncle who was wrongfully imprisoned for 25 years watching Whiteside play Saturday for the first time.
There was the teenager who was dabbling in trouble when Whiteside began counseling him six years ago — yes, Whiteside is the counselor in this relationship — and says, "Hassan changed me."
There were four of his six brothers and their families, from Danny, the oldest, to Anthony, two years older and Whiteside's first challenge, the guy he couldn't beat on the courts in their hometown of Gastonia, N.C.
And there at the center of everyone was his mother, Debbie, a single mother who worked four jobs to stitch together a living and chuckles when people tell the remarkable story of Hassan's rise to NBA stardom.
"He told me, 'You can't buy height, Ms. Whiteside.' See, Hassan was my height at that time in his life (5 foot 11). I had to go home and tell him it wasn't anything he did or could do. But that really hurt him, not making that team."
Small doubts, stitched from minor-league continents to NBA unemployment, are part of his story, of course. They didn't even start in high school, the way the family remembers it. His first-grade teacher had students list three jobs they wanted to be.
"NBA player," the young Whiteside wrote on all three lines.
He got a grade of zero, because the teacher said, "You have no chance to be an NBA player."
Mom went to see that teacher, too.
"I told her not to ruin a child's dream," she said. "I said if he wanted to be an astronaut, he should be told he'll fly to the moon."
So add the first-grade teacher to the long list of those who were wrong on Whiteside. The Forestview High coach, Dan Ghent, too. Whiteside grew eight inches the year after he didn't make the Forestview team.
He grew so quickly his mom gave him Epson salts baths to ease the pain in his legs and he never wore a size 12 shoe ("He went right from 11 to 13 the next time we measured him," his mom said).
He then walked by the high-school coach the next year and said, "Hi, coach." Ghent didn't recognize him initially.
"Hassan?"he said.
He then asked if Whiteside was coming out for the team. This gave an early glimpse into Whiteside's enjoyment of having the last word about those wrong about him.
"He said, 'Naw, coach, I'm not. And you can't buy height,' " his mother said. "I'd run into the coach over the years when Hassan got good and he'd joke, 'Think Hassan will come out for the team now?' "
It's all good now that life is so good. But there were hurdles all along. Even when he grew large to help his basketball, his mother had such little money to feed and clothe him she finally called for help from Hassan's father, Hassan Arbubakrr, who lived in New Jersey.
Arbubakrr took his son to Newark, where he starred in high school for a year before returning to Gastonia. Arbubakrr, who played briefly with Tampa Bay and Minnesota in the NFL, supplied half the rare gene set Whiteside was blessed with.
His mother, of course, was the other half. Before her son was drafted, they ate dinner with potential agent B.J. Armstrong in Charlotte when one Armstrong's former teammates stopped by the table.
"You look familiar," Michael Jordan told Debbie Whiteside.
"I should, we played basketball for a few summers in Paul Ingram's backyard," she said.
Jordan gave her a big hug. But as she tells it that skinny teenager in those 3-on-3 pick-up games wasn't the greatest-player-ever Jordan. He was young, awkward.
"They'd picked me over Mike when choosing sides," she said. "And they were right. I was better."
Jordan became a motivational touchstone for her son through all the hurdles. He needed some, too. Just three years ago, he finished a season in Lebanon and played pick-up games at the Charlotte YMCA a few blocks from where the Heat play Charlotte in Game 4 on Monday.
They were common games, with three players defending Whiteside at times. He met with trainer Hasan Ahad, who worked with other professional athletes at the YMCA.
"I put him through some work, some training, and asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he was hoping to get a job in China," Ahad said. "I told him, 'You should be playing in the NBA. You're better than China.' "
It's not lost on Whiteside that Charlotte wouldn't open the door to him for a tryout in this time. There was a lure of family and familiarity to this city, too, since he grew up 20 minutes away in Gastonia.
His family in the stands shows that in the playoff games here.
"Look at how happy everyone is watching Hassan," his mom said.
No one seemed to enjoy the view more than Whiteside's uncle, Willie Grimes. It didn't much matter the Heat lost. Grimes, 59, had never seen his nephew play. He was wrongly convicted of rape and spent a quarter-century in prison until DNA evidence proved his innocence in 2012.
"I never could make it here when he played until this time," Grimes said. "It's amazing, just all this noise, all this spectacle. And to see Hassan in it, this is something."
Sitting beside Grimes was 17-year-old Caleb Holman. The Holman and Whiteside families have been friends for years. When Whiteside was in college at Marshall, he was asked to talk with Caleb about making good decisions and working on his grades.
"It's what I needed to hear," Holman said. "He just told me to do my work and good things would happen."
That started a friendship between the two. Whiteside checks up regularly on Holman and visits him whenever in Charlotte. This, in itself, offers a different angle of Whiteside considering he's the one the Heat have pushed to making mature decisions.
"He kept me in line when I needed it," Holman said.
For all those years of doubt and disappointment, Debbie Whiteside would tell her son, "It's not your time yet."
Cut in high school? Dumped by the NBA? Navigating the world's minor leagues?
"It's not your time yet."
On Monday night, Whiteside will take the court for Game 4 and look into the stands again to find his family. They hope for a better result to this game. But they know something for sure by now.
It's his time now. And, after all these years of sharing his struggles, they're going to enjoy it.
Whiteside didn't make Forestviews trash ass basketball team
Dude should've stayed at Hunter Huss and balled out
Dude should've stayed at Hunter Huss and balled out
SpacelySprockets
Veteran
mj giving nelly the 
but making sure the random cac comes back on monday
but making sure the random cac comes back on monday
mj giving nelly the
I this guy was exaggerating
Makavalli
Sinister is a system
mj giving nelly the
Wow lmao yo fukk jordan for real! Dude look like he was bout to slap the shyt out of nelly like "nikka dont make my franchise value depreciate"
Then he saw that cac and went straight hanes commercial mode with him
prophecypro
Hollywood North
mj giving nelly the
This needs its own thread.
prophecypro
Hollywood North
Wow lmao yo fukk jordan for real! Dude look like he was bout to slap the shyt out of nelly like "nikka dont make my franchise value depreciate"
Then he saw that cac and went straight hanes commercial mode with him
He even said something like "You won money right?" to the CaC
Brief Keef
Superstar
Hassan Mom used to school Jordan in 3 on 3Whiteside didn't make Forestviews trash ass basketball team
Dude should've stayed at Hunter Huss and balled out
Should have changed his name to Tyler whitesideski
Green Ranger
I Am Legend
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