Terry Rozier's father will see his son play basketball in person for the first time Saturday

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2018/10/boston_celtics_terry_roziers_f.html



Boston Celtics' Terry Rozier's father will see his son play basketball in person for the first time Saturday



Updated 4:45 PM; Posted 4:15 PM



By Tom Westerholm


Boston Celtics guard Terry Rozier's father spent 23 of the last 25 years in prison, missing most of Rozier's childhood and all of Rozier's formative moments as a basketball player.

This summer, Rozier Sr. was released from prison, and Rozier met him as he was released with a Sprinter van and took him to the mall to get clothes.

Since then, Rozier has been working to rekindle his relationship with his now-freed father. The Boston Herald's Mark Murphy wrote a feature on their relationship, which included this nugget: Apparently, Saturday's preseason game will be the first time Rozier Sr. sees his son play basketball in person.

Terry Sr. missed every in-person minute of his son's rise as a basketball player, from Shaker Heights to Louisville to the Celtics. ...

"This is emotional," he said. "I can't wait for Saturday, the first time ever. A lot of people think I'm so emotional when I talk about it. I've been waiting a long time to come home and watch my son."


Rozier has risen to prominence as one of the more promising young point guards in the NBA, particularly after his performance in the playoffs last season. He was completely unfazed by the moment, save for an inopportune cold streak in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

But getting a chance to play in front of his father for the first time might make Saturday's preseason game against a lower-tier Cavaliers squad one of the more meaningful basketball games of his life. Don't be surprised if Saturday means a little more to Terry Rozier than everyone else.



bob


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http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/2018/10/rozier_reunion_celtics_guard_father_rekindle_relationship





Boston Herald
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018


Rozier reunion: Celtics guard, father rekindle relationship



Mark Murphy Wednesday, October 03, 2018




Young Terry Rozier, now a guard for the Celtics, poses with his father Terry Sr. Photo courtesy Rozier family



Now that he’s outside “those walls,” as he calls them, Terry Rozier Sr. can indulge in comforts most take for granted, like joining friends at a sports bar to watch “Monday Night Football.”

His local spot in Youngstown, Ohio, is The Steel City Bar & Grill. Tuesday is usually reserved for karaoke, but last night the bar manager made an exception at Rozier’s request, cancelled the singing, and devoted two big screens to the Celtics-Cavaliers exhibition game.


Wings were served and the 43-year-old Rozier, released this summer following a 15-year prison sentence, settled in to watch his son from a familiar perspective — on TV.

Little Terry Rozier was on the screen shooting free throws when Cavs broadcaster Fred McLeod noted the Celtics guard’s father would be at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday to watch his son in person for the first time. After spending 23 of the last 25 years in prison, this was all too true. Terry Sr. missed every in-person minute of his son’s rise as a basketball player, from Shaker Heights to Louisville to the Celtics.

Rozier Sr.’s voice halted, and came back over the phone quietly.

“This is emotional,” he said. “I can’t wait for Saturday, the first time ever. A lot of people think I’m so emotional when I talk about it. I’ve been waiting a long time to come home and watch my son.”

A sight to behold

When Rozier walked out of Ohio’s Trumbull Correctional Institute this summer, the sight was amazing. A beaming Little Terry was at the curb, standing in front of a large Sprinter van that had been provided by his friend “G.”

“Before I got out there, everyone was telling me, ‘Your son’s out there with a big party bus,’ ” said Terry Sr. “It was just so emotional after being locked up for 15 years. So I was very enthusiastic. We just started talking. There were basketball clips playing on the screen.”

First stop was a meeting with the probation officer, followed by the mall, where Little Terry took his father shopping.

“He was buying me clothes, shoes,” he said. “It was a little overwhelming because everything was so new, so fast. I felt like a little kid.”

The Sprinter pulled into a cemetery, where Terry’s mother Gina met them, and everyone went to the grave of Edeva Rozier. Terry Sr. hadn’t been able to attend his mother’s funeral in 2007.

Then it was on to the Youngstown suburbs, where Little Terry had bought his father a house, with four bedrooms and a back patio. Terry Sr. already has plans for it — fix the patio, install cameras, make the place secure.

Asked how he’s doing, Terry Sr. sounded a little winded.

“It’s my first time working a job,” he said, thinking about Galaxy Industry Services, a company that is cleaning up two steel mills in Youngstown. He climbed inside a furnace the first day and began clearing it out. The crew shovels out coal, sops up oil spills, and works in 12-hour shifts.

“I don’t quit,” said Terry Sr. “I came back the next day after that first time. I think that was sort of set up to get me to quit, but I came back.”

Little Terry in a nutshell.

“We’re like the same people,” said the Celtics guard. “We’ve got the same attitudes. Same type of relax, chill. Very caring. But once you reach that point where you tick us off, it’s like a ticking bomb. All the same.”

Terry Sr. laughed hard when Milwaukee’s Eric Bledsoe pulled a “Terry Rozier Who?” moment during the playoffs. He laughed harder when Little Terry called him Drew Bledsoe.

“Loved the way Terry was guarding him,” said Terry Sr., who thanks to an agreeable warden at Trumbull watched games on the NBA Network.

But the experience was horribly conflicted. Terry Sr. was 18 when he was sent away for eight years for felonious assault. As Little Terry once said, his father was there to hold him when he was born. When Terry Sr. got out his son was 8, and despite the reservations of Gina and her mother, Amana Tucker, Little Terry was allowed to move in with his father for the summer in Youngstown.

“I taught him how to play basketball,” said Terry Sr., who did indeed become his son’s trainer, driving a car while Little Terry jogged, teaching him how to box, encouraging their shared love of football, and finally leading the kid out to the basketball court.

One day he showed up for open pickup games with his brother Aaron and two other friends. They needed a fifth, and Aaron suggested Little Terry.

“He was 8,” said Terry Sr. “So we went out there — seven grown men and an 8-year-old kid, and we won.”

Tragic mistake

What happened three months later seared the family, and Terry Sr. made what he describes as “a goofy-assed decision. It was all on me.”

Terry Sr. and three other men attempted to hold up someone on the sidewalk — “a dude,” as Terry Sr. remembers him. A cousin named Latrell Jackson fired a gun errantly, killing another member of the group, William Lee.

This time Terry Sr.’s penalty was 15 years for involuntary manslaughter.

“That’s what it is. If you’re involved in something like that, everyone is charged,” said Rozier, who after the case went to trial two years later, was gone for a much longer time. He still visited Terry over the next two years, but their time together was finished.

“I got impatient. That’s what it was,” Rozier said. “Work didn’t seem to be going well, and I made a goofy-assed decision. It was all on me.”

‘It’s my father’

Terry Sr. recently received a shipment of Scary Terry gear, and is waiting for a similar order from the Celtics. This may be all he wears for a while. A friend was able to airbrush together first a Louisville and then a makeshift Celtics jersey for him in the prison’s arts and crafts shop, the latter with a regular Celtics back and Little Terry’s picture on the front. The new stuff is official.

Under the conditions of his probation, Terry Sr. can leave Ohio after Oct. 24 then plan a trip to Boston for his first game at the Garden.

Little Terry just had a fashion spread in GQ, and has a new deal with Puma. Scary Terry has grown from an underground sensation. Above all, he’s a player Celts coach Brad Stevens refers to as “a stud,” a starter if he wasn’t playing behind Kyrie Irving.

In prison, Terry Sr. was known as the resident NBA father. But the way that summer with 8-year-old Terry ended will always haunt him.

“I have seven kids, and I played a part in their lives, but never a full part,” he said. “With Terry that year, that was the first time one of those kids was a full part of my life.”

Little Terry’s goal now is to restore that link.

“It’s my father, just happy he gets another chance at life, and that he knows I’m here for him,” he said. “It’s not like you’re out of jail and I’m going to put a million dollars in your hands or anything like that, but I’m happy he’s here and I want that relationship back.

“It’s just crazy every time I see him call, it means he’s out. It’s just crazy.”



bob


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Very happy for Terry and his dad

Good for both Roziers! I wish that my dad could have seen me play some sport.