Ian Wa­son

For­mer na­tion­al bas­ket­baller Adri­an Joseph rel­ish­es the role that he plays as a fa­ther to his chil­dren. He is the proud fa­ther of two—Gabriel, 11, and Adriel, ten. The well-trav­elled play­er who dis­played his skills as far as the Mid­dle East be­fore win­ning ti­tles on lo­cal soil,

said it was a bless­ing to play the role of Dad­dy.

“Sac­ri­fic­ing is part of it (fa­ther­hood),” Joseph said. “It’s part of fa­ther­hood, it’s part of what you have to go through that’s manda­to­ry. You know, there are fi­nan­cial com­mit­ments and oth­er re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that en­tail be­ing a fa­ther, or a par­ent, I should say.”

Joseph, who won the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onships with two dif­fer­ent teams, Po­lice in 2014 and Cale­do­nia Clip­pers in 2019 (reign­ing cham­pi­ons), added that there is so much pos­i­tiv­i­ty in be­ing a fa­ther.

“So I wouldn’t look at it as any­thing neg­a­tive. And the op­por­tu­ni­ty is just there to be able to ... some peo­ple are not able to have kids. I end up be­ing able to have kids and be able to see kids fol­low­ing the same path as I do, which is play­ing sports–bas­ket­ball, and net­ball–you know, a smile for me, in­side and out.”

In ad­di­tion to the two na­tion­al cham­pi­onships, Joseph’s re­sume al­so in­cludes be­ing the Hoop of Life cham­pi­on with La Ro­main in 2013 and Su­per Ten cham­pi­on with Petro Jazz in 2014.

The for­mer NCAA bas­ket­ball shoot­ing guard shared some of the trea­sured mem­o­ries he has with his chil­dren. “My son (Gabriel), he just sits down and watch­es bas­ket­ball with me all the time,” a proud Joseph said. “Every time I watch bas­ket­ball, es­pe­cial­ly the bas­ket­ball se­ries go­ing on now (NBA fi­nals), he watch­es these se­ries.

He asks, ‘Dad­dy, will you choose what team you like?’ Every team I like, he will pick the op­po­site team, just to make sure he makes it com­pet­i­tive.” It does not stop there; Adriel, the younger of the sib­lings, has al­so tak­en a lik­ing for sports. “And my daugh­ter, she al­ready said that she’s go­ing to by­pass what­ev­er I ac­com­plish as well.”

Joseph, who holds the record as sev­enth on the list with most three-point­ers made with Vir­ginia Tech, said, “Just be­ing around them, see­ing that they’re do­ing, the things that I am do­ing as well, be­ing com­pet­i­tive, and I would say I don’t have one spe­cif­ic mo­ment of joy with them. I would just say there are many mo­ments, and there’s the op­por­tu­ni­ty, like I said, to spend time with them, watch them grow, watch them de­vel­op in the sport that I love, and see­ing that they’re lov­ing it too makes it more than just one mo­ment, but many mem­o­ries.”

Not on­ly does Joseph spend qual­i­ty time with his chil­dren, but he al­so over­sees and nur­tures an ‘ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly’ with scores of chil­dren as the founder of the Ad­vance Ge­net­ics Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my. At this acad­e­my, sev­er­al play­ers have gained schol­ar­ships to pur­sue bas­ket­ball ca­reers.

Be­ing a bas­ket­ball play­er and men­tor, Joseph us­es the lan­guage he knows best to ex­press how a man should per­se­vere in his role as a fa­ther.

“And in terms of bas­ket­ball, if I talk about bas­ket­ball, be­ing a bas­ket­ball play­er, I just say, look at it as every day you come out and do some­thing 15-20 min­utes a day, three times a day, so days up­on days up­on weeks up­on months up­on years, and the op­por­tu­ni­ty rep­re­sents it­self, be­cause they will find you based on your po­ten­tial, and nev­er give up. Nev­er give up on what you’re try­ing to ac­com­plish in life, and just con­tin­ue be­liev­ing in your­self and do­ing the best you can.”

Fa­ther­ing tips

Joseph, who takes his re­spon­si­bil­i­ties as a dad se­ri­ous­ly, shared some ad­vice with T&T men. “The first step is ac­cept­ing or hav­ing to ac­cept the pos­si­bil­i­ty that you are go­ing to be a fa­ther. And by be­ing a fa­ther, I say, just be the best per­son that you could be,” Joseph re­marked. “You know, we all know right from wrong. If you be­lieve in God, be some­one who prays. Pray dai­ly. Pray to the Fa­ther, ask Him for, you know, his bless­ings, so that He can ac­cord­ing­ly an­swer what you want to do in life and what you want to ac­com­plish in life, young and old. And by do­ing that for your­self, you’re al­ready set­ting an ex­am­ple for your younger ones.”

He added, “Like I say, kids look at their par­ents as gods be­cause that’s all they know at that point in time, and they will fol­low your lan­guage, the way you speak, the way you walk, the way you talk, and every­thing you do. So when you set that ex­am­ple from a par­ent­ing point of view or a fa­ther’s point of view and you’re do­ing it the right way, you’re al­ready do­ing what you need to do. So my ad­vice is just to look for that guid­ance from the Almighty, do the things that you think are right in His eyes, con­tin­ue do­ing it, and just pro­vide those op­por­tu­ni­ties for your kids to be the best per­son they could pos­si­bly be.”

The for­mer St Bene­dict’s Col­lege play­er, who is al­so an ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the South Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion, shared some fur­ther ad­vice with men and, by ex­ten­sion, par­ents. “Do it in the right way, do it as best as pos­si­ble, nev­er give up. Ea­gles do fly high in the sky, but they come down to drink wa­ter, so don’t look at any­body as be­ing bet­ter than you. Every­body is on­ly hu­man, and just keep it up, the hard­er you fight, the bet­ter op­por­tu­ni­ties ex­ist for you, and just con­tin­ue do­ing your best on a dai­ly ba­sis.”