Aaron Gordon wandered over to where Serge Ibaka was sitting in the locker room following a tough loss to the Cavaliers. Ibaka noticed his approach out of the corner of his eye, but also noticed his tentative behavior, so continued getting ready to leave. Gordon stood uncertainly behind his teammate for several minutes, waiting for his opportunity.
“Um…” Gordon began, hesitantly.
Ibaka turned around. “Something on your mind? You’ve been standing there for like half an hour.”
“Uh… yeah.” Gordon replied, still looking uncertain.
“Great! Are you gonna tell me what it is, or are you just gonna stand there and mumble?”
Gordon turned red. “Well, Serge, it’s just like, you know, me and some other guys were working out over the summer, and Zach LaVine said that his friend Gorgui always has really good African wisdom in the form of folk tales to help him through tough times and I was thinking, you know, since you’re a vet and you’re from that part of the world if you could maybe also share some of your knowledge with a guy like me, not being racist or anything, and it’s cool if you don’t want to, I was just wondering, you know.” Gordon said this all very fast.
Ibaka stared at him. “So… you want some bedtime stories from my home country about overcoming adversity and the like?”
Gordon nodded eagerly. “Yeah, just like that. All this losing got me down, man!”
Ibaka stood up. “Here’s a story for you. My mother died while I was young, and my father was imprisoned while trying to save us from a brutal civil war, leaving me and my 17 siblings struggling to find food and shelter in the midst of the bloody chaos, all the while being ignored by every conceivable aid agency. Every day I wake up with the screams of the slaughtered innocent ringing in my ears, and the guilt that I escaped that hellhole and made a success of myself, leaving countless others, friends and family, behind. That good enough?” He barked. Looking shocked with himself, he walked out, leaving an equally shocked Gordon behind.
“Wow!” Gordon muttered. “Really puts things in perspective!”