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Hassan Whiteside surprises mom with dream house he promised her as a kid

dan devine
Senior NBA writer
Hassan Whiteside smiles.(Issac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images)
Hassan Whiteside smiles.(Issac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images)

Last June, Hassan Whiteside achieved a lifelong dream, signing a four-year, $98.6 million maximum-salaried contract to stay with the Miami Heat after spending his first few years trying to find a pro basketball foothold and a long-term NBA home. This week, the 7-foot shot-blocker crossed another longtime goal off his to-do list, much to the delight of his mother, Debbie.

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Whiteside captured the moment on his Snapchat account on Wednesday:

From Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald:

“I love it,” she said as the family toured the two-story house that includes a basement. “It’s got everything I need. It’s big enough for my family to come enjoy themselves.” […]

When Hassan was younger, Debbie worked four jobs as a single mother to raise him and his six siblings. Hassan has a younger brother named Nassan who has autism.

“All your dreams are fulfilled as a parent when your child gives you something that you know you’ll probably never be able to get in your lifetime on your own,” Debbie says in the video. “He told me he was going to get me a house one day and nobody can take it. I guess he did that. I love you. Thank you son. You made me very happy today. I don’t think you can make my day no better.”

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The six-bedroom dream house is in Mount Holly, N.C., near Charlotte, according to Ira Winderman and Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

“When he was 6 or 7, he sat down and drew a box picture,” Debbie Whiteside said, “put a bunch of windows in it — ‘One day, I’m going to buy you this house with a bunch of windows.’ ” […]

“When we walked up to the house,” Debbie Whiteside said, “He said, so no one else heard, ‘Turn around, look at the windows.’ That’s when I kind of lost it. I started crying. I started crying.” […]

“When I gave her the keys, I saw she was like, ‘Really?’ She thought it was like a joke or something. I’m like, ‘Naw, mom,’ ” he said, “and then she just gave me a hug and started crying.

“It was like my first time like just seeing her just cry over something, being happy. I’ve never seen her cry like happy tears like that.”

Whiteside’s basketball journey has taken him from Marshall University to the second round of the NBA draft; to D-League stints in Reno, Nev., Sioux Falls, S.D., Hidalgo, Texas, and Des Moines, Iowa; to Sacramento, China and Lebanon. Eventually, that path led to Miami, where he bought into the Heat’s vaunted culture and harnessed his estimable physical gifts to become one of the NBA’s premier rebounders, rim protectors and pick-and-roll finishers.

The journey has made him a rich man, and now, it’s enabled him to keep a promise he made as a small boy to the person who was with him every step of the way. Some things are worth the wait, and the work.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!