During the Michigan State Spartans preseason college basketball contest against Hillsdale College, we saw a pleasant father-son moment between Spartans head coach Tom Izzo and his son, Steven.
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Preseason feels ❤️
Coach Izzo tears up as his son Steven knocks down two free throws 🥺
(via @msucontent)
pic.twitter.com/KesfTp8s5N— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) October 26, 2023
Knocking down two free throws, Steven's father and head coach for the last four years, Tom, was seen visibly emotional on the sideline.
You may be wondering why Tom was emotional.
Was it just seeing his son make some shots? Well, yes, but there's more to the story than that.
Steven was a walk-on at the school in 2019. Throughout his time with the school, Steven has averaged just 1.2 minutes per game through four seasons. He's recorded assists and rebounds during his play, but he's never scored a single point during the college basketball regular season.
The five-foot-eight guard has attempted ten shots over four years, and he didn't make any of them. So, for the elder Izzo to see his son make some shots in a college basketball game, albeit in the preseason against an opponent like Hillsdale College, it's hard to believe this was a moment he was waiting for.
You also have to consider the backstory here.
Steven isn't Tom's biological son, but Steven only spent a few days of his life without Tom and his wife Lupe as his parents.
Tom and Lupe adopted Steven after Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban told Tom's wife that he knew of a boy born in Saban's home state of West Virginia that he discovered through a doctor he knew. Saban said he was an "angel of God when it comes to placing children and helping people."
"We went down there. I'm not kidding you, when I first saw Steven he put his arms out to me. He was four days old," Lupe said. "There was just no way we were gonna be separated after that."
The Spartans are the preseason No. 4 team in the country behind only Kansas, Duke, and Purdue. Their season kicks off on November 6 against James Madison.
