Inside The NBA - Russell Westbrook, & James Harden Interview | Kevin Durant Interview
Brenda Hawkins" family and friends have joked that if Russell Westbrook ever goes missing, they"ll tell police to start the search with her.
There"s no bigger Russ fanatic.
She has replicas of every jersey the Thunder superstar has worn. She has copies of dozens of magazine covers he"s graced, including one from, of all things, a rural electric cooperative. She has bobbleheads and fatheads, paintings and posters.
Standing in The Russell Room in her Mesta Park home, she admits her love is extreme.
But she claims accomplices.
They buy me stuff, she says of those close to her, but then they turn around and go, You"re 60 years old. That room looks like a teenager"s room."
She laughs.
These days, she is hardly alone in her rah-rah for Russ. All-Star Weekend has been something of a celebration of Westbrook. The triple-doubles. The outrageous plays. The success sans Kevin Durant. Even though Westbrook won"t be starting the All-Star Game, it wouldn"t surprise anyone if he won his third consecutive All-Star MVP anyway.
Whatever happens Sunday and beyond won"t change how Brenda Hawkins feels about Russell Westbrook. That"s because he did more than capture her heart.
He saved her.
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Brenda Hawkins and her husband, Terry, always loved basketball. For years, they had season tickets at Oklahoma State, their alma mater, but Eddie Sutton"s departure also led to theirs.
When the Hornets arrived in Oklahoma City, Brenda and Terry bought season tickets immediately. They loved the games, the entertainment, the excitement, and they were sad to be without basketball when the team returned to New Orleans in the spring of 2007.
Then a few months later, on Nov. 23, 2007, they suffered a personal loss.
Their son, Andrew, died.
He was only a few months out of college. Like his mom and dad, he"d graduated from OSU. He was working at Bank of Oklahoma and making plans to start law school. He was engaged to be married. Even though he had epilepsy, he had managed it and never let it slow him down.
The seizure that killed him was as unexpected as it was devastating.
Brenda and Terry grieved. So did their daughter Haley. Eventually, they had to resume daily duties, so Terry, a lawyer, went back to work at Phillips Murrah and Haley, a registered nurse, returned to her shifts at Integris. But Brenda who was retired after 22 years as a special education teacher and several more years as a court-appointed special advocate for children found the adjustment more difficult.
They went to work, she said, but I just kind of reverted.
The family owns a ranch near Mountain View in southwest Oklahoma, and Brenda spent many days there. That"s where Andrew is buried, and she would go to his grave and sit alone for hours.
I knew I was getting depressed, she said. I couldn"t help it. It was almost like somebody is pulling you somewhere. You just lose who you are.
She had been by her dad"s side as he battled depression late in his life, and she knew she didn"t want to take medicine for her depression. She worried she might have to take antidepressants for the rest of her life. Andrew wasn"t coming back, after all.
Eventually, she asked for help.
In 2008, she started seeing a grief counselor. The sessions helped, and yet, as summer turned to fall, Brenda still felt like she was in a fog. When she and Terry started going to Thunder games of course they"d bought season tickets when the team came to town she sat there in The Peake but wasn"t really there.
It"s like an out-of-body experience, she said. You"re trying to be involved.
And yet, she didn"t really see or feel or care.
Then, she began to notice Westbrook. He was just a rookie coming off the bench at first, but even when he was still Earl Watson"s backup, there was something about his energy and passion that caught Brenda"s attention.
Watching him play made her happy.
Admittedly, being happy made her feel guilty. How could she feel good when Andrew was gone? How could she be joyful when her kid wasn"t here anymore?
With the help of her counselor, Brenda realized that having a passion, a hobby, a diversion was good. Having something she could look forward to was even better.
Going to Thunder games and watching Russell Westbrook were a life saver.
I could start to feel, Brenda said.
She latched on and has never let go.
*
Brenda Hawkins" Russell Westbrook collection started with jerseys. Even though she wears the same blue one to games No. 0 and WESTBROOK on it of course she wanted every jersey he"s worn. The alternate ones. The Christmas game ones. The All-Star ones.
Then she went after trading cards.
Collecting baseball cards had been one of the things she and Andrew did together. They made special trips to add to their collection. They stood in long lines to get autographs.
So when Westbrook held his first basketball camp for kids, Brenda not only took a bunch of kids from the southwest part of the state she got to know them when she was a teacher or a court advocate for children but she also took several framed cards for Westbrook. She got to know his parents, his brother, and yes, Westbrook himself.
He was so thankful to her.
When he started popping up on magazine covers, she thought it would be nice to frame them, too. She did some for herself, but she figured he might also want them.
Brenda knows that he has the means to do all this for himself, but when she was teaching, she was forever helping someone with something. After she retired, she"d turned that attention fully to Andrew and Haley. For example, she made sure to have all of Andrew"s certificates and honors framed.
So when he got an office ... she said, her voice trailing off and her eyes misting up.
Andrew"s death left Brenda with a need to do for someone else. She gives lots of time and energy and resources to kids in the southwest corner of the state, not only taking some to basketball camp every summer but also providing a ski trip each winter, but she still has time for Westbrook.
It"s not for my Andrew, she said, but it"s for somebody that appreciates it.
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Brenda Hawkins took to Russell Westbrook because of the way he played basketball, but the more she"s learned about how he lives his life, the more she loves him.
She lights up when she talks about the reading rooms that his foundation has funded at local low-performing elementary schools. She loves that he doesn"t just give to causes but is personally involved and engaged in the projects. She appreciates how tight he is with his family and doting he is on his wife, Nina.
Yes, Westbrook has some personality quirks and Brenda is totally OK with that.
She had a younger brother who had Down syndrome, and then she spent two decades teaching special ed and coaching Special Olympics.
Different, she has long said, is good.
And so, Brenda Hawkins proudly hoots and hollers and hoists a Westbrook fathead during games at The Peake. She sits only a few rows off the floor opposite the visitor"s bench, and she knows that some people around her in their high-dollar seats are probably rolling their eyes at her.
She doesn"t care.
Russell Westbrook made her happy again.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.
Source: http://newsok.com/article/5538631
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