SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — On the list of all-time NBA career assist leaders, Maurice Cheeks ranks 13th, with 7,392. That accounts for most of the reason he is being inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame this weekend. Still, for many, it is one off-the-books assist from Cheeks’ coaching career that stands out most.
It’s been 15 years, but the moment is memorialized on the web and remains, for the casual fan, the definitive moment in Cheeks’ career: April 25, 2003, the Mavericks-Trail Blazers playoff series. The Mavs had won the first two games, and were on the Blazers’ home floor as 13-year-old Natalie Gilbert was set to sing the national anthem for Game 3.
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Gilbert got through 20 seconds of the song, through, "what so proudly hailed." Then she stumbled on the words, dug her head into the microphone and began looking around as she desperately tried to remember the words. A 13-year-old kid, lost in front of a crowd of thousands.
Then, from her right, the coach of the Blazers — Cheeks — approached. "Come on, come on," he told her, putting his arm around Gilbert as he began to feed her the lines: "… twilight’s last gleaming …"
Gilbert recovered, and warbled through the rest of the anthem. Cheeks moved his hand in circles, in the style of Leonard Bernstein, and encouraged the crowd to join in and sing as well. By the time the song was over, Cheeks gave Gilbert a hug and the crowd gave him one of the great anthem ovations in sporting history.
Thing was, for Cheeks, it was an out-of-body experience. He’s still not quite sure what drove him to Gilbert’s side.
"Once I really saw what I did, I couldn’t believe I did it, first of all," Cheeks told Sporting News. "I had to — I heard the national anthem so many times, so I had to know the words. I didn’t know I was going to have to sing it, but I knew the words and I had to know I could go out there and help her. I just looked and I knew she was struggling.
"I am a father. Everyone can understand that. Once I saw it, I did not want her to be standing in the middle of all those people and not know the words. So I just kind of reacted. I don’t even know why."
In the weeks after his impromptu anthem rendition, Cheeks received thousands of messages, from fans, from out of the country, from former teammates, from fellow coaches. But it was a visit from one of the Mavs’ coaches that sticks with him.
"I remember," Cheeks said, "a coach from the Dallas Mavericks, Del Harris, and it was a playoff game, we were already down 2-0 in that series and that game put us down, 3-0. He came into my office afterward and he, like, had tears in his eyes. Like I said, I had not processed it. I did not know it had been that impactful until later on.
"But I looked at it, and to walk out there on TNT and do that, I was still stunned after I saw the video."
Cheeks relishes his reputation as an understated star, a guy who worked hard to establish himself in the league through his ability to make plays and, most of all, play defense. He was the fourth-leading scorer on the champion Sixers in 1983, averaging 12.5 points, well behind Hall of Famers Julius Erving and Moses Malone and two-time All-Star Andrew Toney.
To put himself so plainly into the spotlight when rescuing Gilbert’s anthem try a decade-and-a-half ago was a bit out of character. But Cheeks is always a willing helper.
"I didn’t know I would do that," Cheeks said. "Many people said, ‘I didn’t know you’d do something like that.’ I just smile. I didn’t know, either."