On January 9, Tonja Stelly had to be in two places at once. This is nothing new to her.This has become a tradition for the past three years The NBA and NHL schedules collided at just the right time.
The Knicks take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, the most famous arena in the world. Her son, Quentin Grimes, who was a guard for the Knicks and now plays for the Detroit Pistons, was reported at 7:30 p.m.Twenty miles east, her son Tyler Myers, a defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks, was in Elmont, N.Y., for a game against the New York Islanders. (New York Islanders) games
So Tonya and her husband, Ken, along with her brother and his family, boarded a flight from Texas to New York. Tonya and Ken went to watch Taylor play at UBS Arena and spent two hours watching the Knicks with the game in front of them and her phone on her lap. Her brother and his family were doing the same thing at MSG, the sound of basketballs kissing the hardwood and Canucks-Islander games playing on the small screen in front of them.
“Of course, people sitting around us were like, ‘Wow! You really like sports,'” Tonya said.. “We said, ‘Yes, yes, we are.'”
Everyone knows Donna Kelce, the mother of NFL players Travis and Jason Kelce. Most people are familiar with Sonya Curry as the mother of NBA players Stephen Curry and Seth Curry. However, few are familiar with Tonja Stelly, the mother of the only NBA and NHL brother duo in history.
She’s a sports mom and a former athlete herself, playing basketball at Fort Hays State University in her hometown of Kansas. Quentin and Taylor were her only children, and from October to April she traveled across the country, bouncing between packed basketball courts and frigid hockey rinks to watch their games.
She gave birth to her two children 10 years apart in Houston – Taylor on February 1, 1990, and Quentin on May 8, 2000 – but they had different fathers. As a result, they grew up in separate households and only saw each other a few times a year.
“I was like an only child,” Quentin said, recalling his upbringing.
Three months after Quentin was born, Taylor moved to Calgary with his father, Paul, who worked in the oil and gas industry, where hockey took root. He started playing the sport in Texas when he was about 7 years old, but the popularity of the game in Canada helped him become more involved in the sport, which set him on the path to the NHL.
In the summer, and sometimes during spring break, Tyler would go back to Texas to spend time with his mom and brother. Tonya would take them out to play tennis or basketball, swim or ride their bikes. They make the 22-hour round trip to Kansas every year to visit Tonja’s family. She made every effort to ensure that her sons maintained a relationship with each other, even though they essentially lived in a country far away from each other.
(Photo courtesy of Tonya Staley)
“It’s very difficult when you only have six to eight weeks in the summer to put this stuff together,” she said. “But we’re going to do things as a family unit and as individuals.”
For example, have them play video games together and take turns choosing where to have dinner.
“They will choose different things, Quentin is 4 and 5 and Tyler is 14 and 15,” she said.
As Taylor entered his junior years, the demands of youth hockey kept him away for longer periods of time. But Tonya and Quentin ventured to Kelowna, British Columbia, to watch him play as a teenager and did the same when he broke into the NHL. Quentin was 8 years old when the Buffalo Sabers selected Taylor with the 12th overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft. At 6-foot-8, he became one of the tallest players in NHL history and quickly made an impact for the Sabers, making the playoffs in his rookie season. Shortly after Quentin’s tenth birthday, Taylor won the Calder Award for the league’s top rookie. In each of his first two seasons, he finished in the top 20 for the Norris Trophy, which honors the best all-around defensive player in the league.
The Sabers playoff series inspired Quentin to appreciate the game beyond just his connection to it through Taylor.
“I remember seeing that atmosphere and I think I was more interested in watching a hockey game than the average Texan,” he said. “I tell people all the time, in playoff hockey, I don’t think there’s a better atmosphere than this — banging on the glass, pushing, jostling, hip checking, the pace is really fast, people throwing things on the ice. They Not in a basketball game (well, unless they’re Jamal Murray, but we digress.)
Around the age of 9, Quentin began playing AAU basketball and, like his older brother, quickly stood out among his peers. By high school, it was clear he would follow in his parents’ basketball footsteps. Tonja Nuss was a 5-10 guard on Fort Hays’ 18-12 record in 1985-86. His father, Marshall Grimes, was a 6-foot guard at Santa Clara and Louisiana-Lafayette in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A five-star recruit, Quentin initially played at Kansas before transferring to Houston after his freshman season. There, he developed into the Cougars’ leading scorer on their 2021 Final Four team and was selected by the Knicks with the 25th overall pick in the NBA Draft.
Only a few people know what it takes to become a professional athlete. Luckily for Quentin, his brother is one of them. Tyler can share how to train like a pro athlete and how to eat like a pro athlete. But he also wanted Quentin to “blaze his own path.”
“As an athlete, I know I don’t want to bombard him with too much advice and give him too much stuff that might overwhelm him, but I’m definitely going to throw little things at him from time to time,” Taylor said. “Just last month I was reading the book and I forwarded it to him and asked him to check it out. I thought little things like that and everything I’d experienced along the way could help He gets out of trouble.
The NBA and NHL schedules overlap, and Taylor and Quentin can’t easily watch each other’s games. “We have to monitor each other from a distance,” Taylor said.
But Quentin started his career in New York, which helped as the Canucks moved through the city against the Rangers, Islanders and Devils. A few years ago, Taylor attended one of Quentin’s home games and they had several dinners together.
“When you see them grow into adults and find their own paths, especially with Taylor leaving at such a young age and now seeing them come back as adults, it’s very special,” Tony said. Ya said while holding back tears. “very special.”
(Photo courtesy of Tonya Staley)
When Taylor spoke on the phone earlier this week, he was already excited for his mom and brother to be in Vancouver this week for the Canucks’ second-round playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Equally exciting in the days leading up to Mother’s Day is that Quentin will meet Taylor’s three children (Tristan, Skylar, and Tatum) for the first time.
“It’s going to be great,” Taylor said before the visit. “The kids will be able to see their uncle, which is great bonding for them.”
For Tonya, who helps raise two boys with different cultural backgrounds, interests and upbringings, “This is a very special weekend.”
What could be more special than this?
Quentin has one year left on his contract with the Pistons, worth $4.2 million, and may be extended to a long-term contract. Taylor will make $6 million this season and will become a free agent on July 1.
There’s a lot to queue up, but one wonders if Tonya’s sons will one day settle in the same arena and the same city. After all, the Detroit Red Wings may be in the market for a right-handed defenseman this summer.
“I think they (could use one, too),” Tonya said with a laugh. “That’s great.”
(Photo illustration: Dan Goldfarb/ Competitor; Photo courtesy of Tonya Staley)
