When Shavonte Zellous was six years old, she knew something was wrong with her mom.
Her mother was in pain. Her legs were shaking, and she couldn't move. Shavonte didn't understand what was happening, but she knew her mom needed help.
“Call 911.”
They did. It was the beginning of a life with multiple sclerosis.
Shavonte remembers being scared. Her mother remembers her crying because “mommy's sick.” But even in that moment, Shavonte was trying to do something about it.
Her mom would spend the years that followed learning how to live with the disease. Shavonte watched her navigate the pain and physical limitations of MS, eventually losing the vision in her left eye. But she also watched her mother refuse to let the disease define their family.
“Mommy was fighting for her,” her mother said. “Because that's what mamas do.”
Her mother had been an athlete herself. She played basketball. She ran track. When MS changed what her body could do, she found ways to keep moving forward.
And she kept showing up for Shavonte.
When Shavonte started playing basketball at six, her mom was there. When she got more serious about the sport in high school, she was still there. And when basketball took Shavonte around the country and eventually around the world, her mother followed. She watched her win a championship in Indiana. She traveled to Turkey. She went to Africa.
There were times when she was sick. There were times when she was in pain. She went anyway.
Shavonte understood that her mother was doing what she needed to do to take care of herself, so when she played, she played. She wasn't thinking about MS. She was thinking about basketball.
Her mother wanted that for her.
“Go do you,” she would tell her. “Don't look at mama. Go do you.”
Even as Shavonte became a WNBA player, her mother's message stayed the same. She wanted her daughter to stay focused on her game and not feel responsible for what was happening to her.
“Mama’s gonna cheer you on,” she said. “Regardless if I'm at home or in the crowd.”
It is hard to separate Shavonte's basketball story from her mother's because, for so much of their lives, the two happened at the same time. Her mother was learning how to live with MS while Shavonte was learning how to become a basketball player.
They kept going. And somewhere along the way, what her mother had given Shavonte started to take on a different meaning.
“God gave you that talent, don't lose it,” she would say.
Shavonte didn't lose it. She built a career with it. Now that her playing career is over, she is thinking more seriously about what she can do with the platform basketball gave her.
Her mother has a way of putting that into perspective, too.
“You used the talent that God gave you, and now you're gonna give it back.”
Shavonte has started figuring out what that means.
She aspires to build a foundation of her own, one that could bring more attention to MS and the families living with it. She is learning more about the organizations already doing the work, thinking about where she can contribute and paying attention to other athletes whose families have been touched by the disease.
Earlier this year, she was watching an NCAA women's basketball game when she saw a player whose mother also has MS. She didn't know the player, but she recognized the experience immediately.
“Dang, somebody else is going through the same thing.”
The realization stayed with her. There are other athletes who know what it is like to watch a parent live with MS. With the growing platform of women's sports, Shavonte sees an opportunity to bring some of those people together and create more awareness around an issue that has been part of her life for more than three decades.
She is looking at MS through the experience she has lived, while also trying to understand the larger community around it. She is learning from organizations already doing the work, identifying other athletes whose families have been touched by MS, and thinking about how their stories and platforms might intersect. As she builds those relationships and learns more about the MS community, she is beginning to figure out where her own voice and platform can be most useful.
Her mother has already given her the direction.
“Go do you.”
Shavonte did. She became a professional basketball player. She built a career. She took the talent she was given and made something of it.
Now she is beginning the next chapter.
Give it back.
