{"id":419474,"date":"2011-05-07T08:19:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T08:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/07\/thunders-brooks-credits-mom-for-success-ap\/"},"modified":"2011-05-07T08:19:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T08:19:32","slug":"thunders-brooks-credits-mom-for-success-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/07\/thunders-brooks-credits-mom-for-success-ap\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder’s Brooks credits mom for success (AP)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)\u2014With all the coaches he\u2019s met around the NBA, Oklahoma City\u2019s Scott Brooks has no doubt who played the biggest role in molding him into a head coach.<\/p>\n

His mother.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Northern California as the youngest of seven children, Brooks never really knew his father. He had left by the time Brooks was 2 and died without a reunion with his youngest son.<\/p>\n

It was up to his mother, Lee, to provide for the family\u2014building and rebuilding automotive parts and working in the fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou worked every day to earn what\u2019s on the table, literally. It was a week-to-week thing,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cAnd I wouldn\u2019t change it. I would not change it for anything. I don\u2019t like the fact that she has suffered a lot of tough times financially, but she doesn\u2019t complain and I wouldn\u2019t change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same characteristics Brooks learned growing up are the same ones he tries to instill in the Thunder, who are tied with the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> 1-1 entering Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals Saturday in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Work hard every day. Don\u2019t complain. Make the best of what you have.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe provided toughness every day. Every day, she would wake up whether she wasn\u2019t feeling good or sick. When you don\u2019t have much and you need to be at work, there\u2019s no such thing as being sick,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cTo see her do that, it inspired me and my brothers and sisters. I was able to see that every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no off days on her being a mom. She was dedicated. She gave her life. She never remarried. She gave her life to making her kids better off, and we all are better off for what she has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Brooks was named the NBA\u2019s coach of the year last season following the Thunder\u2019s best-in-the-league 27-win improvement, he thanked a line of coaches from his high school on up to Jim Lynam, who gave him a chance with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> that led to an 11-year career and the 1994 NBA title with Houston.<\/p>\n

But he saved the biggest thank you for last: \u201cI believe this with all my heart: The greatest coach of all time in my eyes is my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s instilled in me a toughness and a perseverance and just a never-quit mentality, and I thank her every day for providing me, for what she sacrificed her life for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Brooks is her son\u2019s biggest fan. She rarely attends games, but she\u2019s always watching from back home in Lathrop, Calif., where the 78-year-old still works every day at the family\u2019s car wash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to fly. I hate flying,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d rather watch it on TV because I\u2019ve got it right smack in front of me. I pull my stool up right in front of the TV so I\u2019m right up at the TV screen yelling. They can\u2019t hear me but I\u2019m yelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if she attended in person, she said, \u201cI might be thrown out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if he can\u2019t hear it right then, Brooks eventually gets her message. She\u2019ll frequently call him or text him after games to chip in her two cents\u2014 almost always telling what he could do better while supporting his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell him like it is,\u201d she said. \u201cI tell him this person, why don\u2019t you tell him to step up and do what they\u2019re supposed to do?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I told him this: You shouldn\u2019t be the coach. I should be the coach because I have the temper for it. He\u2019s the calm, cool one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always been that way. The most trouble she remembers Brooks getting into when he was a teenager was talking too much to his friends in class because learning seemed to come naturally.<\/p>\n

But he was a hard worker, too. To help his family, he\u2019d get out with his brothers and sisters to work in the fields \u201call day to go to McDonald\u2019s for dinner at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late at night, he\u2019d sneak into a gym to work on his game, sometimes until midnight. It was a habit that helped prepare a 5-foot-11 point guard for the work it would take to stick in the league for over a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always hope to be like her. I don\u2019t know if I can ever become her but she has instilled so much in me\u2014just a work ethic. You earn everything that you get. You don\u2019t want and you don\u2019t look for freebies, she\u2019s always taught me,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day, I hate walnuts and I hate onions because on weekends when the walnuts and onions were in season, we were out there first thing in the morning and out there until the sun went down topping onions or picking walnuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day, I won\u2019t touch them, I don\u2019t look at them, I don\u2019t want them in the house but it\u2019s because of that work ethic that she\u2019s instilled that\u2019s really made me an NBA player and now an NBA coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that \u201cold school, no-day-off mentality\u201d that has stuck with Brooks to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many things that she did and continues to do that a lot of single moms have to go through and fight,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI really respect and admire single moms out there because that\u2019s not an easy job to do, and there\u2019s so many great ones out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Link:
\nThunder’s Brooks credits mom for success (AP)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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