I think Gilbert did the right thing regarding his mom

[theking]

Gilbert Arenas refused to reconnect with his mother after finally meeting her for the first time since she abandoned him in a crack house
Growing up, Gilbert Arenas never saw his mother. His father, Gilbert Sr., raised him on his own and despite their hardships, Gil never felt incomplete. And so while he pursued his NBA dream and even when he made it, it never crossed his mind to search for his mother or establish a relationship with her.

However, life is strange sometimes.

During Gil's second NBA season in 2002-03, the Golden State Warriors visited the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Center on December 14, 2002. While Arenas and his teammates were at the layup line before the game, a woman from behind a security guard a few feet away from the Dubs started yelling: "'Gilbert! Gilbert! I'm your mom! I'm your mom!"

Arenas did not know how to react, so he just continued warming up. During the game, the usually prolific "Agent Zero" finished with 17 points, but he shot just 6-14 from the field as the Warriors lost to the Heat 92-101.

After the game, the same woman convinced one of Gil's Warriors teammates to bring her to the team bus to speak to him. She introduced herself as Mary Francis Robinson, the mother he had not seen since he was three years old.

She hugged Gil tight and cried, while giving him a piece of paper with her telephone number written on it. While Gil accepted it, he didn't say anything. He just kissed her on the cheek and walked away.

"All I asked for when I was younger was to meet her,"said Arenas. "That was it. God gave me that chance to meet her that day. I didn't want to know why, I didn't want to know all the things that happened. I just wanted to meet her. That was my only wish."

She abandoned little Gil at a crack house
Gilbert Sr. and Mary Francis dated for a year, back when he was a multi-sports high school star known as "Gil the Thrill." He got her pregnant, but because he was offered a baseball scholarship at Florida Memorial College, he left her with the hopes of securing a better future for their baby.

While Gilbert Sr. was away, Mary Francis got hooked on drugs and met another man who got her pregnant again. When Gilbert Sr. found out about it, he never came back. That was until he received a call that she had abandoned their son and her other son at a crack house in the Overtown section of Miami.

Gilbert Sr. drove there, got his son and started their life together.

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Meanwhile, Mary Francis said she lost track of Gil and only knew where he was when he became a basketball star at the University of Arizona. It took her a couple more years before she finally had the courage to meet him. But that meeting at American Airlines Arena turned out to be their last.

Gil did not want to talk to her while he was playing in the NBA
While he got her phone number, Gil never called his mother. He never explained why until six years later, when he started writing a blog for the NBA's website and was asked by a commenter why he never used his wealth and power to support his mother. Arenas gave a strong reply.

"I don't want to know you as an NBA player because I don't know what the angle is. I don't know if you want to reconnect with your son or if you want to reconnect with the man who is playing in the NBA. If I was your son, then I was your son for all of these years. I wasn't your son once I made it to the league, so you can tell all your friends, "Oh, that's my son!" That's how I look at the situation,"wrote Arenas.

But that day never came. Weeks before he was sentenced in his infamous gun scandal, Arenas' mother died on March 13, 2010. She had been in and out of the hospital for months, with liver issues.

The last time she was admitted, her liver gave out and she was taken off life support. Gil didn't find out until several days after she passed away. According to reports, the then-Washington Wizards star paid for all her funeral expenses. But he never got to see her again, whether alive or dead.