PAYING IT FORWARD
Food Bank event has extra meaning for Roby and his mother
Spurs forward Isaiah Roby knows what it’s like to go to bed hungry.
As a child raised by a single mother in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck in rural Dixon, Ill., he sometimes found a near-empty refrigerator waiting for him when he returned home after basketball practice.
“My mom wouldn’t get off until 7 o’clock on some nights, and then I might not get home until 8, 8:30,” Roby said. “She would be tired, so it might just be a cereal night. We had the big gallon bags of
cereal, and that might be my dinner sometimes.”
With memories of those struggles still fresh, he jumped at the chance this week to help East Side families.
Braving an intermittent drizzle, Roby spent part of Tuesday afternoon with several teammates and a robust crew of Spurs Sports & Entertainment employees handing out basketballsize turkeys, other supplies and Spurs ticket vouchers at a joint Spurs/h-e-b/san Antonio Food Bank distribution at the Copernicus Community Center.
The event, which distributed more than 200 dinners, kicked off the Spurs’ participation in the “Season of Giving,” a five-week-long NBA initiative designed to bring holiday cheer to underserved communities.
“This is something my family would have benefited from,” said Roby, who helped hand out the plump turkeys.
Making the event even more special for the 24-year-old fourth-year pro: His mother was one station away helping distribute boxes of stuffing. Danielle Roby drove with her oldest son to Copernicus after flying in that morning from Illinois for her first visit to San Antonio.
For Danielle, 42, the giveaway triggered memories of how food pantries in Dixon helped her feed her three sons not so long ago.
“I was a very proud person,” she said. “I was embarrassed, but how else are you going to have food in your cabinet or your fridge?”
Besides getting help from nonprofits, Danielle received assistance from other sources, including Isaiah’s grandmothers.
“Thankfully, I was able to benefit from a lot of different programs that helped me and my family,” Isaiah said.
Danielle was 17 when she gave birth to Isaiah on Feb. 3, 1998. In 2007, she and Isaiah’s father, Roderick Roby, divorced. Roderick was deployed to the Middle East three times between 2001 and 2007 as a member of the U.S. Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division.
He returned from fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We would go visit my dad on the weekends, but for the most part, my mom was the one who really took care of us, drove us to tournaments, that type of stuff,” Isaiah said.
Danielle worked long hours five days a week at a chiropractic office for nearly a decade while Isaiah was growing up.
“I wore a lot of hats,” she said. “I pretty much did everything the doctor wanted me to do, but I didn’t make a lot of monof ey.”
To make ends meet, Danielle did odd jobs on the weekend.
“I would do small things like paint a room or even scrub cabinets or scrub floors or a whole house, anything just to make extra money to give to Isaiah so he could go to his tournaments,” she said.
Danielle made plenty of other sacrifices.
“Sometimes you eat or sometimes you don’t eat, or sometimes you just have a smaller amount so your kids can eat,” she said. “Or sometimes you eat a lot of peanut-butter toast.”
Working so much forced Danielle to miss a lot of Isaiah’s games. Besides starring in basketball at Dixon High, he also played football as a quarterback until 10th grade.
“I liked work, but I hated missing out on a lot of things with my kids and not being at home more,” she said. “When Isaiah was traveling to play (AAU) basketball, I missed out on a lot of time with him. That makes me a little sad to think about even today. But I just had to work.”
Said Isaiah: “She worked her butt off. She did whatever she could to make sure I had opportunities to play basketball and to put food on the table for me and my brothers.”
Danielle’s work ethic rubbed off on Isaiah. To help pay for his AAU trips throughout the Midwest, he sold candy bars and did yard work for neighbors in the town 15,900, famous as the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan.
“After basketball practice, I would go mow lawns,” he said. “I liked it. It instilled hard work into me. It made me proud of what I was doing.”
After committing to Nebraska in October 2014 as a three-star prospect, Isaiah left Dixon High as the Dukes’ career leader in rebounds and blocks and the No. 2 career scorer. In his final season with the Cornhuskers, he started 35 games as a junior, averaging 11.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals.
A second-round pick in 2019, he played his first three seasons with Oklahoma City before the Spurs claimed him off waivers in July. In 2021, he graduated from Nebraska with a degree in business management after taking online courses.
Coming to San Antonio, one of the country’s most economically segregated cities, gives Isaiah the opportunity to do something he’s wanted to do for a while: help the needy. He hosts a summer youth basketball camp in Lincoln, Neb., but he said he wants to do more.
“When I first got to the NBA, COVID had hit and I really wasn’t able to give back as much as I wanted to,” he said. “It’s been really cool to do it in San Antonio.”
On Tuesday, Isaiah saw up close how much the Food Bank means to so many San Antonians in need. Founded in 1980 and headed by Eric Cooper since 2001, the nonprofit is a lifeline to more than 100,000 clients in a 29-county area.
Bexar County, where hundreds of thousands either live in poverty or are on the brink of financial crisis, is the Food Bank’s most populous coverage zone. And the East Side long has had little economic opportunity.
“A lot of people don’t have the means to have food and water during times like this,” said 40-year-old East Side resident Nathan Perry, who lost a leg to diabetes. “It’s hard for everyone right now, really. Any blessings are welcome.”
Earning $1.9 million this season, Isaiah knows how fortunate he is to be a professional athlete. If he or any of his teammates ever forget that, Gregg Popovich is there to remind them.
The Spurs coach is on the Food Bank’s advisory board.
“The life I am living is a luxury — not a real life,” Isaiah said. “That is one thing Pop has done a really good job of instilling in us. He told us this week, ‘You guys, it’s hard. We just played five games in seven days, were on the road for nine days. But we stay in nice hotels, our meals are accounted for.’
“It helps you remember that even on your bad days, life is not that hard. It’s a really hard, competitive job, but it’s a really good job.”
Isaiah is also thankful he now has what he called a great relationship with his father.
“We talk a lot,” Isaiah said. “He is feeling a lot better now. I am definitely proud of his service.”
But this Thanksgiving, Isaiah is most thankful for a mother who paved his way to the NBA with her sweat and sacrifice.
The Food Bank distribution reminded him of that.
“My mom raised three boys on less than $30K a year, and for us to make it out of that, it’s an inspiring story,” he said.