TheSouseFamily said:
Does Dr J attend many games? They've shown him on TV a few times but I don't have a good sense how often he's there. I find it fascinating that David Robinson attends pretty much every single Duke game even though his son, Justin, is a walk-on who rarely plays. Kudos to Dad though for being there. Seeing accomplished athletes exuberantly rooting for their kids warms my cockles for some reason.
I think that is great. Times have changed. When I was a kid, parents rarely attended games of their kids. Most were working, and there were not long lines of parked cars outside schools at 3PM, where parents waited to pick up their kids and take them to their games or other activities. In fact, there was a stigma attached to it, and no boy wanted to be seen having been picked up after school by a parent with a car. When it was necessary and unavoidable, I used to arrange for my mom to pick me up 4 blocks from school, where I would be lurking in a doorway or hiding behind a bush. No one wanted to be called a mama's boy.
My dad had his own business, and usually worked 7 days a week. I was hoping he would come to one of my games, just one, and I hoped that if he did come, I would not screw up. Finally, in my senior year of high school, my father, who was a much better player than I ever was, did come to a game against our rival, Polytechnic, although he never told me he was going to come. Luckily, I lit it up in the first half, going 6-6 from deep. In the second half, Poly put on a full court press, and I lost the ball maybe 3 times, nearly costing us the game. Coach Neff chewed me out royally. After the game at dinner, my father told me he had been at the game. All he could say was, "Well, son, you have a good eye".
Fathers are different now, and I don't know if that is good or bad. It just is what it is.