Santa & Basketball : Can Christmas possibly get any better?

There are not so many things I'm a huge fan of, but basketball and Christmas time are two of them. See how they collide.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, the SF Bay area legacy newspaper.

Warriors' Stephen Jackson plays Santa for Oakland families

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

In a small house in a modest area of East Oakland, two families have gathered to celebrate Christmas.

The families have fallen on hard times and Christmas looks a little grim this year. There's a Christmas tree in the living room, but no presents under it. The adults chat, and the kids run around and scream at each other.

They're all waiting. A big man is supposed to stop by and bring presents. A man in a costume leads the kids in song and cheer until sounds can be heard coming from the front porch. Then a loud, robust knock.

"He's here!" shouts one of the kids. The door opens. A tall man in a cream-colored track suit and very expensive earrings walks through the door. It's Stephen Jackson, starting forward for the Golden State Warriors.

"Merry Christmas everybody," he says with a shy smile.

"He's real!" says 12-year-old Bryan Burton. "He's really real."

And so began the Christmas that will forever be remembered in the Draper and Reed households. Not only did they get piles of presents, food and other gifts, they got it all hand-delivered by one of the best players in the NBA.

"These kids will never forget this moment," said Frances Draper, a 64-year-old grandmother taking care of eight young children. "Even when they're old, they're going to be telling this story to their family and friends."

The event was part of the Warriors' Season of Giving campaign. The team helps out about 5,000 people, and the players, coaches and staff get involved in disbursing presents and money to people in need.

Erika Smith, a spokeswoman for the team, said families ask for help and fill out a wish list of presents. The team buys the stuff and the players, like Jackson, pay for it and deliver the goods.

Jackson arrived late in a gleaming black Bentley. Inside the house, the Warriors' mascot, Thunder, kept the families entertained. Members of the Warriors staff told the families that something was up, but didn't say who was coming or what they were getting.

It was a lot like waiting for Santa to show up in a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

Jackson pulled up to the curb outside the little house with none of the fanfare he usually gets when he's at the Oakland Arena. Only a couple of reporters were on hand to mark the occasion.

The Warriors had brought the Reeds - Lamont and Cheryl and their three children - to Frances Draper's house. On the front porch, they stacked the presents and all sorts of grocery items that needy families might want, such as paper towels, ramen noodles, pies, cakes and vegetables.

Jackson squeezed into the small living room, crammed elbow-to-elbow with kids, and made his way to a small sofa in the corner. There, sitting next to his mother, Judy Jackson, he spent the next half-hour passing out wrapped presents to the kids. The presents were to be unwrapped later, but clearly one or two were basketballs.

"Come on now, Layla, give me some sugar," Jackson said as he reached for the baby of the bunch. She reached for his neck and gave him a kiss.

After Jackson passed out the presents, he told Lamont Reed that his Pacific Gas and Electric bill, a whopping $1,700, had been paid. And he told Draper that a new TV was on its way to her house later in the week.

"I had no idea that any of this was going to happen," said Reed, who was recently laid off from his job. "When I saw him coming through the door, I was like 'Whoa!' "

Jackson hung around for pictures with the parents and kids. After they started in on the pizzas he had brought, the tall man and his mother slipped out the front door.

"It always feels good to do stuff like this," Jackson said.

Jackson has an image on the basketball court for being a volatile and passionate player, but none of that was evident in the little house in East Oakland.

"That's just the way I play basketball," he said. "I hate to lose. But off court, I'm a humble person. God blessed me and gave me the ability to do something for other people, and that means a lot to me."

Draper was very emotional, too. She said taking care of eight kids has been hard. But with the help of her family, friends and church, the True Word Church of the Living God, she says, she gets by.

But there weren't going to be any Christmas presents this year.

"Everything was going toward expenses and utilities," she said. "And now, all this. I just can't believe it."

John Koopman