How did Chris Silva’s surprise come together? A look at the backstory from start to finish.
Erik Spoelstra has led a lot of practices and walk-throughs in his 12 seasons as the Heat’s head coach. But the walk-through on Dec. 27 before the Heat’s win over the Pacers was different, and Spoelstra could feel it.
“I felt my hands shaking,” Spoelstra said, acknowledging it’s the most nervous he has ever felt while leading a team walk-through.
With Heat two-way contract big man Chris Silva’s mother, Carine Minkoue Obame, in AmericanAirlines Arena waiting to surprise her son with her presence, Spoelstra felt the pressure.
A native of Gabon, Africa, Silva left his home country in 2012 just days before turning 16 to come to the United States with a dream of making it to the NBA. Silva, now 23, had seen his parents and three brothers only once since then, and that was when he returned to Gabon for two weeks to renew his visa as a sophomore at the University of South Carolina.
“The whole walk-through, I just wanted to get through all the prep so we could get to that moment,” Spoelstra said, “because you felt like that could be a transcendent moment. Not only for Chris and his mother, but for the team and our organization just to be a part of something so unique and special.
“This was something that was in the works for over a month. That’s why I was so nervous talking to the team. I really wanted it to go well for him and for it to be real and authentic.”
The surprise was special, with Spoelstra closing the team’s walk-through by bringing out Silva’s mother to the AmericanAirlines Arena court. With teammates and coaches huddled around, a shocked Silva simply said, “That’s my mom,” after realizing it was his mother and then bursting into tears.
It marked the first time Silva had seen his mother in three years.
It took a joint effort from the Heat, the NBA and NBA Africa to create this moment. How did it all come together? A Heat spokesman filled in the Miami Herald on the backstory.
It began about a month ago when the Miami Herald published a story on Dec. 2 on Silva’s journey to the NBA, where Silva revealed he had seen his family just once in the past seven years. Heat managing general partner Micky Arison and chief executive officer Nick Arison read the story and immediately felt the need to reunite Silva with his mother.
The Arisons thought about making it happen themselves, even though they wondered if paying for a player’s family member’s flights and hotel would be classified as a violation by the league. In the end, the Arisons instead opted to bring Silva’s story to the attention of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Silver informed Micky and Nick that the Heat could not pay for Silva’s mother to come to Miami because of league rules. But Silver also felt the need to reunite Silva with his family after reading the story and came up with the idea for the NBA to pay for his mother’s travel expenses as part of the NBA Africa initiative.
Kim Bohuny, who is the NBA’s senior vice president of international basketball operations, then got the contact information for Silva’s mother. With a person who spoke French on the line, the league called Obame and told her they wanted to bring her to Miami to see her son.
At first, Obame didn’t believe it. It took a second call from the NBA with the flight arrangement details for her to realize it was a legit opportunity to spend time with Silva.
So, Obame departed Libreville, Gabon on Dec. 26, went through Paris and arrived in Miami on Dec. 27 after 17 hours of flying. Heat officials waited for her at Miami International Airport with a French translator and a sign wih her name on it.
Once finding team officials at the airport, Obame had about two hours to prepare for the big moment. Upon her arrival, the Heat brought Obame to a different hotel than the one Silva is staying at this season to avoid the two from seeing each other before the surprise.
From there, a Heat official picked Obame up and brought her to the arena. The team put a microphone on her, and that’s when the surprise happened.
Since then, Obame has been moved to the same hotel Silva is living in. Silva will have his mother with him in Miami until Tuesday, when she leaves to return to Gabon.
“Every morning, she comes and knocks on my door and wakes me up,” Silva said. “She always wants to be with me. We’re catching up, talking. I’m trying to show her a good time.”
Silva and his mother spent New Year’s Eve walking around Midtown Miami and then crossed the bridge to walk down Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. They then went to dinner together before returning to their hotel to take in the final few hours of 2019.
“She went to sleep early,” Silva said with a laugh, noting he was alone when the clock struck midnight. “Normally, she goes to sleep at like 8 p.m.”
The Heat documented Siva’s surprise and the video went viral. How many times has Silva watched the video?
“I try not to watch it because it feels weird to see myself cry. I don’t cry a lot,” Silva said. “But at the same time, I get emotional when I see it. Even now, I get the goosebumps back when I see the video.”
Because Silva still remembers how he felt in that moment, even almost a week later.
“I was very shocked,” Silva said. “That’s probably why I cried because I was surprised. It caught me off guard. They did a very good job of not telling me and keeping me out of the loop. When I saw her walk in, it was a whole bunch of things going through my head trying to figure out what was going on. If it’s real or not. By the time I figured it out and she walked on the court, there was a lot of emotions coming out at once.”
Spoelstra is one of the few people inside the Heat organization who knew about the surprise for the past month, and it even left him emotional.
“I will not say,” Spoelstra said with a grin when asked if he cried. “You know what, I felt like there was a lot of dust in the air, including for myself.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
