| | By Melanie Jackson
ESPN.com
Willard Ward probably won't tune in for much of the Mother's Day matchup between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat.
|  | | Willard Ward prefers not to watch her son Charlie's games with the Knicks. |
Although Ward is immensely proud of her son, Knicks point guard Charlie Ward, she rarely watches any of his games.
"I've followed his whole career, but when it comes to sitting and watching the Knicks play, I always find myself busy doing something else," Ward said. "When you're a mom, you get a nervous stomach. And some of the commentators also say negative things. So I try to keep busy."
Occasionally, though, curiosity gets the best of her.
Take, for instance, one day in 1997, when after "keeping herself busy" with a bit of shopping, Ward plopped down into her rocker and "said to myself, 'I'll just see how the Knicks are doing.' "
As soon as Ward turned on the TV, there was Charlie, or "Junior" as she calls him, getting tangled up with Miami's P.J. Brown after a free throw. The two players tangled, with Ward eventually going head-over-heels on his way out of bounds with less than two minutes to play in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
It was after Ward retaliated by shoving Brown, and several of the Knicks starters came off the bench to pile into the fray, that Willard Ward's phone started ringing. And ringing and ringing.
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HOUSTON'S HOLIDAY MEMORIES
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Alice Houston, mother of Knicks guard Allan Houston, won't be at Sunday's game, either.
Although Houston has spent the past two Mother's Days with her son and his family, this year she'll be in Louisville to celebrate with her own mother, who's 92.
"But I love it when all the players say, 'Happy Mother's Day, Mom' to the camera," Alice Houston said. "Even in the midst of the playoffs, when it'd be so easy to forget Mother's Day, it's neat for them to acknowledge us."
Houston, who says she loves attending games at Madison Square Garden, where she "feeds off the energy of the crowd," has seen the Knicks win on Mother's Day.
Two years ago in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Knicks beat the Pacers 83-76.
"Then we went out to dinner after the game," she said.
Of the heated Knicks-Heat rivalry, Houston added, "Allan's games are pretty tough to watch anytime, but this time of year, it's do or die.
"And this particular rivalry is very, very special and intense. But it makes for good basketball, and it's good for the league."
Helen Mashburn, mother of Heat forward Jamal Mashburn, agrees, and will be on hand Sunday for what she expects to be a great game.
She says the matchup is more special because it's on Mother's Day.
"This way, I get a chance to see (Jamal), and I'm just happy to be with him for Mother's Day," Mashburn said.
"The NBA moms (MPBP) are just one big family, and I just wish all the guys the best."
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"Friends were calling from all over the United States, asking me if I'd seen the incident," Ward recalled by telephone from her home in Thomasville, Fla. "Junior went at P.J., which was totally out of his nature. None of us could believe it."
Of course, nowadays, what transpires in a Knicks-Heat game -- not to mention in the playoffs -- doesn't seem to surprise anybody. After all, no two NBA teams have sustained a better rivalry over the past several seasons.
Still, Willard Ward says, her son's "retaliation" was a learning experience. Charlie, as well as four other Knicks -- Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson and John Starks -- was suspended for one game, with Brown getting served a two-game suspension.
"Junior found out he was human, that he had emotions," said Ward, a member of the Mothers of Professional Basketball Players, a support group of sorts for 112 mothers of NBA, WNBA and CBA players started by Terrell Brandon's mom, Charlotte, in 1996.
"But when he thought about it later, he realized it wasn't the best way to handle it. And he said, 'Next time I'm put in that situation, I'll handle it differently.' "
So, even though Ward insists the on-court altercations and occasional scuffles don't dissuade her from watching the games -- "I'm the sort of person who likes to be surprised," she says -- she'll probably "sit out" Sunday's 12:30 p.m. ET tipoff at Madison Square Garden.
"I have a home office, and usually go in there (during games)," Ward said. "Sometimes I get on the Internet, go to NBA.com to check the score, but then I'll click back to something else."
And sometimes she'll steal a glance at the TV screen on her way to the kitchen, or strain to hear exactly what Charlie's father, Charlie Ward Sr., is saying about the game as he watches it right across the hall from her office.
And since Sunday is Mother's Day, maybe it's time for another shopping trip. But this time, don't count on her tuning in for the game's final minutes.
Melanie Jackson is the College Sports Editor at ESPN.com. | |
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