Sports, though not immune to the same pitfalls that plague our everyday life (greed, selfishness, hypocrisy, violence, etc.), have a wholesome way of bringing people together, particularly in times of need. Despite how it may appear to outsiders, the NBA is as loyal as any community you’ll find in professional sports, a tightknit group fiercely protective of its own.
Rockets coach Stephen Silas experienced this quality firsthand, receiving an outpouring of support from fans, media and colleagues following the death of his father, NBA legend Paul Silas, who parlayed a successful playing career (three championships, two All-Star appearances and five All-Defensive Team selections) into coaching stints with the Clippers, Hornets, Bobcats and Cavaliers. After missing Sunday’s game against Milwaukee, the 49-year-old returned to the sideline for Tuesday night’s upset of Phoenix, where Silas was consoled by Suns coach Monty Williams, who knows a thing or two about grief after experiencing his own heartbreak, losing his wife, Ingrid (with whom he shares five children), in a fatal car accident years earlier.
Life, particularly as we grow older, is full of revelatory moments, taking inventory of who and what actually matter, and rarely is the answer money or fame. Beyond our sense of dignity and self-worth, the strongest currency to be had on this blue marble we call Earth are the relationships we make, crystalizing in beautiful moments like these between two men, stripped of all pretext of bravado and faux masculinity, united in their shared grief.
Mourning the loss of loved ones, the people who gave our lives so much meaning and purpose, is unfortunately a necessary rite of passage, as vital to the human experience as the air we breathe. Hopefully Silas, amid the sadness of losing his biggest advocate and role model, will arrive at a place of peaceful acceptance, finding comfort in the indelible impact his father had as an ambassador of the game, a fixture in the sport for the better part of five decades.
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