Tear-jerker: Father dies before son gets a chance to meet him

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=Rose-Walker&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

You want to know something else?

Jalen Rose has been a multi-millionaire for 10 years now. If, at any point during that time, he ever really wanted to meet his father, all he had to do was hop in a plane and go do it.

So spare me the Kleenex.

 

Oh Starman thank God you're all right. There's a thread about which cities need new stadia and you were nowhere to be found.

Like any good journo, I had the RIP Starman obit cued (or queud) up and ready to go. Welcome back!

 

Yeah, Jalen, it's all about you, buddy..........


Maybe he's looking for a sympathy fuck.

 

And Jimmy was man enough to have sex with a woman, so he should have been man enough to go find his kid before it got to this point. No heroes in this story.

 

This is sad but Rose could've seen his dad. There was nothing stopping him. Hell, he could've paid for the trip. He didn't.

 

Much easier said than done.

I've got a biological douchebag out there that I'm curious about, yet I'm not in a rush to meet him. I've got his phone number and address but he'll likely be dead by the time I get the energy to contact him.

 

I was more worried that Starman was going all soft on us and posting tear-jerkers. What a relief. ;-)

And as usual, he's right. No heroes in this story at all.

 

W-B, you're definitely right on that. It's a particular brand of forgiveness that is really hard to dole out. Plus, it's a little eerie having people constantly tell you how much you resemble your father - a superb athlete, but a married dude who screwed your mom and left. Mind games.
Which is not to say that Walker was patently a jerk - clearly he wasn't. All the more reason, perhaps, that Jalen should've met him. It's just hard to do, which adds a level of sucktitude to their waiting to see each other.

But really, wasn't their "meeting" at the funeral the most appropriate thing? Walker was always somewhat dead to Rose, in that he never actually saw him, and spoke to him a few times. It always came down to that steady stream of other people Bembry talks about, stepping up to the figurative podium, and telling Rose about Walker.

 

Having some knowledge of this type of thing... It is certainly possible that Rose wasn't mentally prepared to meet with his biological father before this point.

Life is complicated and emotions are incredibly complicated in situations like this. I don't fault either individual.

 

According to the story, this passage took place in the year 2000:

One difference: One of them was a millionaire, with the ability to fly anywhere in the nation he wanted on about three hours notice; the other wasn't.

Now, we have the sob story of Jalen Rose sitting in the funeral parlor in the year 2007, wondering why he "never got the chance" to meet his father.

In the last year or so, Jalen Rose has been a semi-regular on "The Best Damn Sports Show." Why not skip an episode or two of that retard-fest and go meet your father? Just sayin.' :

 

And because he didn't do that it's eating him up inside.