When the high-flying magician landed, he turned, gave a little hunched-shoulders muscle pose, and then shot a quick glance — more like a peek — at his head coach.
Sunday night, Toppin topped that.
During the second time out of the charity exhibition game with Ohio State to promote mental health, Grant was quickly stopped by associate head coach Ricardo Greer, who turned him away from the assembling huddle and pointed him toward the court.
“Ricardo grabbed me and said, ‘You’re not going to participate in this time out!’” Grant later remembered with a smile. “He said, ‘You need to go to half court, something’s going on here.’ I had no choice. He was not going to let me get to the time out.”
At midcourt, Grant was joined by his wife Chris; Rudy, the Flyers mascot; and Toppin, who’d just made the trip over from Indianapolis, his new NBA home with the Pacers.
Toppin handed the Grants a $20,000 donation for their Jay’s Light Fund, a mental health and suicide prevention initiative the couple started in the name of their beloved 20-year-old daughter, Jayda — Jay to her friends — who took her own life 17 months ago.
As the quartet posed in front of an oversized check while photographers took pictures, Chris wiped tears from her eyes and Anthony, just briefly, had that same look of disbelief and admiration he did when Toppin rocked the house with his most famous UD dunk.
“I can’t say enough about Obi Toppin,” Grant said after the game, which Ohio State won, 77-70, although the score didn’t matter on this night. “I’m extremely grateful. I didn’t know that was happening today.
“(Obi’s) generosity, his heart ... that’s just pure love.”
And that’s what this night — and last Thursday night at the Arena, as well — was all about.
It was about love.
Love lost.
Love kept alive and safe and nurtured.
» That’s why UD donated all the proceeds from Sunday night’s game to three organizations —the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation (OSPF), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Jay’s Light Fund — that are promoting mental health awareness, providing resources and trying to erase the stigma around issues of mental illness and suicide ideation.
» It’s the reason CareSource — which co-presented Thursday night’s resource fair and mental health panel discussion at the Arena featuring the Grants and Mark and Kym Hilinski, whose son Tyler, a Washington State quarterback who took his life — presented a pair of $50,000 checks to OSPF and NAMI during another time out Sunday.
» It’s why the game was a sellout and why as soon as the exhibition ended, the crowd stood and gave both teams a round of applause.
» It’s why one of the organizers estimated — when all the donations, ticket sales and other sources of revenue were combined — some $500,000 was raised Thursday and Sunday.
» And it’s proof that Ohio State was the perfect opponent — better yet, partner — in this affair.
More than just giving UD a formidable test of the court, the Buckeyes gave the Flyers a hand in promoting the real purpose of this long imagined roundball reunion.
Thanks to OSU coach Chris Holtmann and his staff, the Bucks came in with the right attitude and understanding of what this night was about.
And when they took the court, Holtmann said they noticed the banner unfurled in front of the Red Scare student section thanking them for being here.
The OSU coach got emotional when he started to talk to the media after the game:
“I have such respect for Anthony and Chris and the courage they’ve shown for what has to be an immeasurably difficult time the last couple of years.
“There are so many things that are ... bigger….ahhh …”
Holtmann went silent, his thoughts pulled elsewhere. He tried clearing his throat and then pursed his lips in an attempt to draw some moisture into his suddenly dry mouth.
For 42 seconds, he didn’t say a word.
He looked down, his focus elsewhere, then finally sighed, took a breath, and continued:
“I think as you get older, you realize there are so many things that are bigger than what you do….and…. mmm…if we could, in some way, play a part in any type of healing or certainly in raising money for what is a tremendous cause — the spotlight that Anthony and Chris started — we’re glad to do that. We’re grateful to be asked to do it.
“We told our guys before the game, there is nothing that can come out of this experience that isn’t positive, as long as we handle it the right way. They were well aware why we were doing this and the reason we are doing it. We had that conversation pretty extensively.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Hoops with a purpose
The UD players understood, too.
They attended Thursday’s session and, prior to the game, they and the Buckeyes players each recorded videos on the subject of mental health. Some of those spots — by OSU guards Evan Mahaffey and Dale Bonner; and by the Flyers’ DaRon Holmes II and Kobe Elvis — were shown on the Arena’s big video boards during time outs Sunday.
“We definitely understood what this was about,” said UD guard Enoch Cheeks, a veteran transfer from Robert Morris. “Leading up to this we all were educated about mental health. We all watched videos. We knew how much this meant to our coach and today we wanted to put on a show for the event.”
And no one put on more of a show than the 6-foot-3 Cheeks.
In the first half, he made all six shots he took, including five from three-point range. His only miss of the night came on the lone hoist he took when he played a few minutes in the second half. He finished with a team-high 17 points and the embrace of the crowd.
A chorused “Cheeeeeks” rose in the Arena as he put on his shooting display.
“When I saw the first one go in, I was like, ‘OK, it’s gonna be a good game.,” he smiled. “Then the second one went in, and I was like ‘Alright, I’m starting to get on a roll.’
“Kobe Elvis was on the bench, telling me, ‘Keep going!…Keep going!’ Malachi, too. Everybody was telling me to keep going and saying, ‘When you get an open look, shoot it!’
“I’m not saying it was a crazy surprise, but it did feel amazing.”
Actually, the whole night — and Thursday night, too — was pretty amazing,
The players warmed up wearing long-sleeved Jay’s Light T-shirts with “Take Hope To The Hoop” on the front and on the back was “The Spotlight” with a picture of a basketball and the message “To shine a light on mental health.”
During nearly every time out and at halftime, video messages appeared on the big screens overhead. There were clips from The Mental Game podcast that featured everyone from former Cincinnati Bengals great Chad Johnson and the Reds Jake Fraley to actor Terry Crews, former Buckeyes and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier and former NFL running back Ricky Williams.
All the Atlantic 10 basketball coaches also appeared in a clip.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
‘This is where my heart is’
Afterward Grant stressed the purpose of the event:
“If someone were to say, ‘I have broken arm’ or ‘an abscess in my tooth,’ it’s immediate. We know where to go. We know what to do.
“But if someone says, ‘I’m suffering from anxiety, depression,’ we’re not at a point now as a society, where we’re willing to have those conversations and I think that needs to change. We don’t know where, necessarily, to point people for help.
“So if we, in any small way, are able to help break that stigma just by making people aware, this was a win.”
As Grant explained: “At the end of the day, for my wife and I, you are all aware this was very personal.”
Flyers guard Malachi Smith understood that:
“This was kind of special for AG. We wanted to go all out for him, just for what happened to his family. Last year was rough. He was going through a rough time last year and we tried to keep him in good spirits. And this was for a good cause today.”
The formation of the Jay’s Light Fund (www.jayslight.org) has given some purpose to the Grants’ pain.
“(This) couldn’t have turned out any better in my mind,” Grant said afterward.
Asked if this charity exhibition could become an annual event, Grant didn’t hesitate:
“That would be our goal. Certainly, I would like to do as much as we can to stay in this space and try to make a difference.
“This is where my heart is.”
This is about love.
Love lost.
Love kept alive and safe and nurtured.
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