HBO Real Sports will profile former Lakers assistant and current Denver Nuggets coach Brian Shaw tonight at 10 p.m. PT, and the subject matter will go beyond the hardwood.
The segment, reported by Bernard Goldberg, will heavily focus on how Shaw has dealt with the painful loss of both of his parents at an early age. Shaw’s father, Charles, and his mother, Barbar died on June 25, 1993 on their way to Las Vegas to meet up with him after Charles unexpectedly fell asleep at the wheel.
That’s why Shaw encountered conflicting emotions after winning the 2000 NBA championship with the Lakers.
“After the first championship in 2000– I looked around the locker room and I saw Shaq’s parents and Kobe’s parents. And it was a bittersweet feeling for me,” Shaw said, according to interview excerpts. “I was happy, you know, because we won the championship. But at the same time I was, like, their parents are here. My parents deserve to be here, too.”
But the adversity has made him stronger.
“Definitely. It made me a lot more patient,” Shaw said. :But it also made me more assertive in terms of when I see things happen that I could step in and address I do it.”
The segment will also touch on Shaw’s current head-coaching gig with the Denver Nuggets and his years with the Lakers where he won five NBA titles, including three as a player (2000-02) and two as an assistant under Phil Jackson (2009, 2010).
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