This Moment Is About the Kids

Daquavis Walker didn’t feel super Sunday morning. This is part of Walker’s life, the daily assessment of his stamina, his pain, his temperature. Walker, a 15-year-old from Flint, Mich., has sickle cell anemia.

“The last couple of years have been just awful,” said Sherry Walker, Daquavis’ mother. “In the hospital, out of the hospital, back in. I don’t know how many times. It’s just been rough.”

Andrew and Ryan Monahan, 16-year-old twins from Pittsburgh, were a little hesitant to make the plane ride to Los Angeles. The high school sophomores have epilepsy.

“I think they were a little fearful of having a seizure during the long plane ride,” said Linda Monahan, the twins’ mother. But the twins play basketball, even though the medicine they need slows them down. So they got on the plane.

Christopher Bangs, 11, has small basketball hoops attached to all the corners and doorways of his bedroom. “And he uses them all the time,” Sandra Bangs said. “It’s hard sometimes to not worry, but we have to let him be a boy.”

Christopher, who is from LaPorte, Ind., had a heart transplant when he was 2. The hours of his day are segmented into pill sessions. The pills prevent him from rejecting his heart. They also put a crimp in a boy’s day.

The Monahan twins and their parents; Walker, his mom, his stepfather Manley Koger, his older sister Kendra Walker and younger brother Manley Koger Jr.; and Bangs, his parents and his sister Melissa, have been guests of the NBA during All-Star weekend through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The foundation offers children who are living with serious medical conditions a chance to form a dream and then have it happen.

The three families arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday and have attended dozens of events, but the highlight came Sunday afternoon in a hallway outside the locker room of the Eastern Conference All-Star team.

Pressed up against a concrete wall, the children, who had been boastful and giggling, trash-talking and high-fiving, suddenly grew quiet when Orlando Magic star Tracy McGrady stood for a few photos and then signed some shirts, sweatbands, jerseys and torn pieces of notebook paper.

McGrady is the favorite player of Walker, who has a diamond stud in his right ear and corn rows that resemble those of Allen Iverson. Walker’s sister gasped and clutched at her heart as McGrady walked around a circle and signed autographs for family members.

“I thought Kendra was going to have a heart attack,” Manley Koger Jr. said.

“So did I,” Kendra said.

“I just tried to be cool,” Daquavis said.

The Monahan twins didn’t think they deserved this trip, their mother said. “They said things like this should be for kids in wheelchairs or who might be more seriously ill,” Sandra said.

Kevin Garnett made a stop for the kids. Christopher gasped.

Shaquille O’Neal arrived and Manley Koger Sr. screamed and guided Daquavis forward.

“You can’t be shy now,” Koger said. “Go get that picture.”

It took a minute, maybe two, from each of the athletes to provide an everlasting memory.

“I’ll never forget this moment,” Andrew Monahan said. “Not for as long as I live.”