NEW YORK, NY — There is a story out there titled How My Mom Saved My Life on The Players’ Tribune that each and every one of us should take a read on as Michigan Wolverines star graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg goes in depth on how he got to where he is today thanks to his mother who saved him from going down the wrong path during his high school days.
Born in Puerto Rico, Lendeborg, of Dominican heritage, later moving to Pennsauken, New Jersey, shares all of his emotions and much more, including challenges he and his loved ones are currently battling through together while his mother fights cancer.
Michigan’s star forward Yaxel Lendeborg tells the world how his mother got him to where he is today in the latest story out on The Players’ Tribune – Image Credit: Yaxel Lendeborg/The Players’ Tribune
The following two excerpts are from his must-read story, which could be found in its entirety on The Players’ Tribune.
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“I wasn’t thinking about basketball as something I’d be doing beyond senior year. I was seeing those games almost like 2K, actually. That playoff game, I remember I did well, but we still lost. Season’s over. All my teammates are in the locker room crying. And me, I’m thinking … Yo, that was so fun!!! Where we going to eat now??? Like, don’t get me wrong — I’m one of the most competitive dudes you’ll ever meet. But I just wasn’t thinking about my future at all.
My mom, though? She had other ideas.
I didn’t know a thing about it, but once I got reinstated, she was working the angles like crazy behind the scenes. Just doing her Dominican mom thing and hustling to find a way for everything to pay off for me. Making phone calls. Sending emails. Trying to get me tryouts with coaches. Telling anyone who’d listen that her son was a great player.
I remember this one night, I’m up late playing video games, and get to bed around 4. The next morning, she comes into my room at 7, shaking my pillow. “WAKE UP!!! We gotta go!” Mom somehow got me into this basketball camp near New York for Dominican kids. (Completely behind my back!) She drags me out to the minivan, and we hit the road. Then we get there, I play in the camp, and when it ends, they make this announcement, the list of “top performers,” and they call my name. I’m like: Oh, cool. That’s great! Let’s get back home so I can get up on some Call of Duty. But mom … she’s not having it. She’s over on the bleachers meeting with these JUCO coaches, these NAIA dudes, anyone who was willing to talk to her, basically.
Next thing I know, she comes into my room and is like, “You’re going to Arizona!”
Whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaat?
“Arizona Western. Junior College. For basketball. You leave in two weeks. Get packin’.”
No lie, I’m crying hearing this. Bawling. Like: “How could you do this? I don’t want to go to Arizona!!!!” Real tears like…. “You can’t just make me do this. All my friends are here.”
But Mom was. Not. Having. It.
She literally threw me a going-away party without asking me. Or telling me about it. Invited all my friends. Baked a cake. Everything. Like …. Adios! I’m at my own party crying like a baby. Trying to smile through it. I can’t even explain how crazy it was.
A few days later, I’m crying in the minivan on the way to the airport. Then I’m bawling on the airplane looking out the window. And then I’m crying because I don’t know anybody in Arizona and I’m sometimes shy when it comes to meeting people. And then I’m crying because there’s no Dominican food in Arizona, and then….
I get on the basketball court in Yuma, Arizona, and everything just clicks.”
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“These days, my mom isn’t able to make it out to our games as often as she used to. It’s been a long, hard process. As I’m sitting here writing this, she’s finished up her ninth session of chemo. Three more to go.
She’s the strongest person I’ve ever known. So I know she’s going to be OK.
I’ll also be honest though … for me, as her son? I’m a wreck. I’m always trying to do what she says and “be strong” — I try to do that for her. But it’s just really, really hard right now, you know what I mean? It’s not easy pretending to be OK, and acting like everything’s fine, when you’re worried about the person you love more than anyone on this planet.
I can promise you that I’m going to do the best I can with that — for her. Like I said, everything I do, it’s for her. But in some ways, that’s kind of out of my control. Because I’m gonna feel what I feel. I have no control over that, really.
One thing I can control, though, is I can do everything in my power to make sure my mom knows how much she means to me. I can make sure she understands that I’m so grateful for everything she’s done. And that all I’ve ever wanted was to be someone who my mom could be proud of, someone she is proud to call her son.
Sitting here right now, during this amazing season we’ve been having … I’m just so thankful that basketball has allowed me to do stuff for my mom that I know she never would’ve imagined back in the day. (Definitely not back when she was taking my door off the hinges!) We still haven’t officially retired that old minivan, but I was able to get her a new Jeep to ride around in. And I’ve been able to pay off a bunch of bills, stuff like that. And now that we’ve been playing all these games on TV, it’s so funny … Mom, back home, it’s like she’s a local celebrity. She’s rolling up to Chipotle and behind the counter they’re like, “Hey, aren’t you Yaxel’s mom?!” They’re giving her burritos for free. Extra guac!!! She’ll call me up like, “Yax, guess what?!?!? I’m a famous mom now.” It makes me so proud every time she says that. Knowing that I can do something that makes her feel happy.
And of course, I know that more than anything else, what makes my mom most happy is seeing me happy. Seeing me accomplish my goals. And I know there’s nothing I could do right now that would make her happier than seeing me keep working hard, keep playing my best, and help bring a national championship to the University of Michigan. So that right there is my focus. I want more than anything to cut down those nets — for so many reasons, but most of all for HER.
Because there were literally hundreds of times over the years when my mom could’ve given up on me. Times when, honestly, she would’ve had every right to give up on me.
But she never did. And now here I am.
Here we are.
And now that we’re here??? Man … I just want to be the kind of person who was worth not giving up on. I just want to be the player she always believed in me to become.
I just want to make her proud.”
A young Yaxel Lendeborg and his mother before all of the stardom – Image Credit: Yaxel Lendeborg/The Players’ Tribune
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