This is a True Story I call . . . Do you know who . . . Also known as MOM!!!!!! (Crying eyes out).

I love my mother. I really do. BEST. MOTHER. EVERY. MOMMY!

I can forgive her anything . . . almost.

My mother, even though she spent time working in gym, being a sport equipment coach for my High School, she isn’t really a sports person. She never really followed sports, didn’t know the pro athletes that much, and still doesn’t if they aren’t on E News or TMZ.

She defiantly didn’t know who it was in 1985 when she meet one of the biggest names in basketball, and had no idea who he was.

This is a True Story I call . . . Do you know who . . . Also known as MOM!!!!!! (Crying eyes out).

I remember this vividly. This was in the springtime, which in England is cold like any other time. I was eleven. I was going to Croughton Middle School at Croughton AFB in England, while my dad was stationed at Upper Heyford AFB while in the Air Force. My mother worked at the base gym on Croughton herself.

Since my dad was in the Air Force we moved around a lot, and we didn’t live in many places that had professional sports teams. So, generally, I followed what teams I could watch, and more often than not specific players.

When it came to the NBA my favorite player was Larry Bird, and my favorite team the Boston Celtics (partly because of Bird, partly because my mother is from Ireland and is Celtic). This is important to the story.

My mother rode my school bus home with me one day and, of course, we got off together. This was no big issue with me, I wasn’t embarrassed like many kids would be. Once we got home and she started making dinner, she asked me an odd question: “Have you ever heard of a guy name Kevin McHale?”

I answered, “Yes.”

“He’s some sort of basketball player I was told,” she said.

“Yeah, he plays for the Celtics . . .”

This is when she broke my heart, “Oh, okay. He was here for the last week . . .”

I freaked out, McHale – The Boston Celtic – was here???

She went on to tell me he was visiting and staying with his cousin who was stationed at Croughton. He came into the gym a few times and played basketball. She even mentioned that he was really tall.

I cut her off and asked (probably demanded) to meet him. (If my heart was broken earlier, here is where it get rips out).

She told me he left that afternoon for London to return home.

I was so pissed. This was KEVIN MCHALE. MCHALE. The base gym was one block from my school. I had lunch with my mom when McHale was probably there in the gym. I missed meeting him by hours, maybe inches???

I was so pissed, and sad.

To this day, it is still painful.

Ace

But I still love you, mom.