Easy Sunday: Portland Trailblazer Coach Mo Cheeks rescues a young singer

They met again this week.

She thanked him.

She said the stumble, then rescue, was life-changing.

Twenty-two years ago, Blazer Coach Maurice Cheeks saw that a 13-year-old singer of the National Anthem was struggling. He stepped up. He joined in. He got the crowd to join in. Watch:

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Natalie Gilbert is Natalie Zito now. She is married and has two children. She sings professionally. She sang the National Anthem at a NY Knicks game this week. Cheeks is an assistant coach for the Knicks and was there to see it. She belted it out without a hitch.

She reflected on that embarrassing moment at the Portland Rose Garden:

“It made me a much stronger individual. I can face adversity or anything that’s coming at me. I just push through now, because that’s probably the worst thing that can happen to you when you are 13 and in middle school.”

She and Cheeks took a pre-game photo together at this reunion.

New York Times: The Athletic

She said, "I owe a lot to this man." She said she is better for having gone through the experience.

It’s the best example I can show my children. That, hey, it’s OK to make mistakes. It’s all about how you recover from them. 

 

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