Long road to Father's Day for Henry and Mike Bibby

On July 22 in Las Vegas, Michael Bibby will be playing in a basketball tournament. That's Michael Bibby, age 10.

His dad, Mike Bibby, 30, star guard of the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, will be in the coach's seat.

No big deal there. Fathers coaching sons is the American way, especially when your father has been one of the best pro guards of this era.

In the stands, chest all puffed up, watching every move of both Michaels, will be grandpa Henry, 58.

Now that's a big deal.

There was a time not long ago when grandpa wasn't part of his son's life, and certainly not his grandson's. That split was well-documented, especially in a February 2001 article in The Times. A quote that became a dagger in the heart of Henry came from Mike, who had been a star at the University of Arizona while Henry was a coach in the same conference, at USC.

When Mike, a high school All-American at Shadow Ridge in Phoenix, picked Lute Olson and Arizona over Henry Bibby and USC, the questions were inevitable. Even more so when he led Arizona to the NCAA title in 1997. When pressed, Mike responded with the dagger.

"My father is not part of my life," he said.

Henry Bibby had long been separated from wife Virginia and his family in Phoenix by years of coaching in the Continental Basketball Assn. and places such as Puerto Rico. Eventually there was a divorce. But that one comment by his son stayed with him like a label.

"I'd go out recruiting," Henry said, "and the mother of the player would look at me and say, 'If you can't have a relationship with your own son, how are you going to have one with mine?' "

As Mike Bibby became more prominent, starring with the Sacramento Kings for years before his trade to the Hawks, his high profile made his estrangement from his father a topic that wouldn't go away.

But now it has, and Henry calls that one of the more important things in his life.

So are the phone calls that will be exchanged today.

"I'll call him, wish him happy Father's Day," Henry said. "He's a father now too. And I'll get a call from him, sometimes the day before if he is traveling. That's usually how it is."

Mike agreed that Father's Day is different now that he acknowledges he has one.

"We're good now," he said. "He calls. He calls the children. For a while, there was nothing. But you let things go. It was a long time ago."

In October, Henry will have more children to call. Mike's fourth child, and third girl, will be born.

"Nine grandchildren then," Henry said. "She will be my ninth."

Henry and Virginia had two sons -- Mike and Hank, a former baseball player at USC -- and one daughter, Charlsie. Charlsie is married to Eddie House, the Celtics guard who starred in Thursday night's stirring rally against the Lakers.

To be clear, this is not a story of a family gathering at the dinner table on Father's Day and joyously celebrating the end of all hostilities and the beginning of an Ozzie-and-Harriet future. Henry and Virginia have been divorced for more than a decade.