A player reflects on winning an NBA championship and the 18 years his mother drove two hours daily to Atlanta for his practices. He argues every player owes gratitude to the network of family, coaches, and trainers who sacrificed for them, not just those who got playing time.
I mean, when, when I won the NBA championship, a lot of stuff just flashed before my eyes. Like, I don't think you understand the amount of sacrifices that people make for everyone to get there. For me, for the trainers, for the coaches, there's a lot of people's tribes that are sacrificing for them to be there. Let's go through my family. My mom drove me to Atlanta 2 hours every single day for practices for 18 years straight. And then I went to prep school and she came and visited me there. Then I went to Elon and she came and visited me there. I mean, there's a lot of sweat, equity, time, sacrifice put into these players, whether they're playing max minutes or they're playing zero minutes. If you've made the NBA, you sacrifice a lot to get there, no matter who you are. So with that being said, when it finally sunk in that I won an NBA championship, I was emotional. I was emotional because
