Making it to any pro league usually requires a lot of sacrifices, and sometimes it’s not just sacrifices from the athlete but their family.
One of the latest examples that have come to light comes from Lakers guard Patrick Beverly who joined Kevin Hart on his “Cold As Balls” show and talked about his journey to the NBA.
Most people know that Pat was an outstanding basketball player coming out of high school and college but the opportunity for the NBA wasn’t there for him after leaving college, so he had to play overseas. When you’re playing overseas, you’re locked into your contract unless you pay to get out of it, and most guys don’t have the money to do that.
Pat got the opportunity to get to the NBA with the Cavs or Rockets but was stuck in a contract with his team in Russia and would have to pay $1.6 million to get out of it. Pat says he thought that the NBA could pay to get him out of the contract but found out that they could only pay $250,000, and he would have to pay the other $1.4 million, which he didn’t have.
He turned to his mom and asked what she would do. She asked if the NBA was his dream which he replied yes, and that’s when she pulled out her checkbook and wrote him a check for the $1.4 million he needed to get out of the contract so he could fulfill his dream.
That wasn’t the end, though.
He ended up with the Rockets and didn’t even get his own place when he got there. He stayed with his mom, who was doing nails at the time, and asked what they would do for dinner. He also says this was for his first couple of years in the NBA.
Really dope story.
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