The two became buds at a hotel bar, and bonded over each other’s kids. If you see me walking down the street (you might recognize me in my bow tie) stop and say “hi”, even if I do not know you. That is…unless I say “hi” first. A story for WBUR by Shirley Wang is going viral, about her dad’s friendship with Charles Barkley. Barkley recounted to Shirley Wang on the WBUR show how her father stood out, and friends and family. I include myself when I note that many people today are absorbed in what we call distant-present. Yet, moments of intervention in a stranger’s life can change our lives, and theirs. My kids still talk about how I, several years ago, at some risk to my own physical safety, stepped in to help a homeless man who was being harassed by other “gentlemen” in downtown DC. Strangers can sometimes even save lives, not just change them. When Barkley’s mother died in 2015, Lin Wang traveled to Leeds, Alabama, to be at the funeral. The second validation for stranger no-danger that I recently found was in a book, When Strangers Meet: How People You Don't Know Can Transform You. It started as a TED Talk from Kio Stark and then turned in to a book. Like the first unlikely conversation between Lin Wang and Charles Barkley, talking to strangers can have transformative power. It took a long time, but I finally found validation in talking to strangers. First, I found an amazing and heartening story on NPR by Shirley Wang, about her regular-guy dad, Lin Wang, and his most unlikely and strong friendship with Charles Barkley. It’s an almost impossible friendship that was sustained over time and distance. The story, My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley, will melt your heart. But again, as a good millennial, I knew that people have very loose definitions of the word friend.For several of my formative years, I was embarrassed by many things my father did. High up on that list was his annoying habit of talking to complete strangers. Only later in life did I see the value and surprise (pleasant and less so) in overcoming fear, becoming vulnerable, and actually talking to strangers. I don’t do this every day, but enough that it now annoys my kids. One of the best sports stories of 2018 is a story of an Odd Couple. 'For your dad to take the time to come to the funeral meant a great deal to me,' Barkley said to Shirley Wang, Lins daughter. He seemed pretty famous and definitely not like anyone who would be friends with my dad. Lin Wang and Charles Barkley on the TNT set. Like a good millennial, I googled Charles Barkley. The first time my dad told the story, I didn’t pretend to know who this person was. Despite Shirley’s initial disbelief in her father’s narrative, it turns out that he truly was one of the athlete’s closest companions. Whenever we attended dinner parties, my dad would talk about his friend Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley’s friendship with Lin Wang In one of the accounts shared by Lin Wang’s daughter, Shirley Wang, it was revealed that her father and Barkley shared a deep friendship. For many years, he was the number two guy, right after Michael Jordan.” “He’s a top-50 player in the history of the NBA. “You know, has a big personality,” he told me. My dad, Lin Wang, knew about Barkley long before he met him. I said, ‘That’s my boy Lin.’ They’re like, ‘How do you know him?’ I said, ‘It’s a long story.’” Everybody’s like, ‘Who’s the Asian dude over there?’ I just started laughing. I said, Thats my boy, Lin,' Barkley said. Barkley recounted to Shirley Wang on the WBUR show how her father stood out, and friends and family wondered who he was. “It was obviously a very difficult time,” Barkley told me recently regarding his mother’s death. When Barkleys mother died in 2015, Lin Wang traveled to Leeds, Alabama, to be at the funeral. In short, he was everyone’s suburban dad. He worked as a cat-litter scientist in Muscatine, Iowa. When Barkleys mother died in 2015, Lin Wang traveled to Leeds, Alabama, to be at the funeral. Here’s what I can tell you about him: He often wore striped polo shirts tucked into khaki shorts, and he got really excited about two-for-one deals. He wasn’t a basketball player, he wasn’t a sports figure, and he wasn’t from Barkley’s hometown. But there was also an unexpected guest.īarkley’s friends couldn’t quite place him. WHEN CHARLES BARKLEY’S MOTHER, Charcey Glenn, passed away in June 2015, the former basketball star’s hometown of Leeds, Alabama, came to the funeral to pay respects. “My Pal Charles” Reader's Digest US | December 2019 - January 2020 An NBA star, an immigrant scientist, and a friendship no one believed - By Shirley Wang A chance meeting in a hotel lobby sparked an unlikely friendship between former NBA star Charles Barkley and a cat litter scientist in Iowa.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |