A 9-year-old boy from Kansas got an amazing opportunity at Thursday night’s Mavericks game.
"One of the coaches lifted me up, and he took me to Luka Doncic and I met him," Brayden Whitley said.
He couldn't believe what Mavs assistant coach Darrell Armstrong was doing.
“I was thinking, 'am I going to meet Luka? Am I going to meet Luka?'" Whitney recalled.
While warming up at the free-throw line, Doncic paused for a picture with Whitley. But, the amazing journey didn't end there. After the game, he got one more special encounter.
"Luka Doncic came over, untied his shoes, taking them off, signed both of them and gave them to me," Whitley said.
The family says Doncic had already given Brayden a special gift: a healthier life.
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Brayden has a seizure disorder. His mother, Bekah Whitley, says he suffers from partial complex seizures of the right frontal lobe.
Whitley brought a sign to the game saying, "My doctor says watching Luka helps my epilepsy. 9 months no seizures."
"You are always waiting for the next one,” Brayden’s mother said. “So, 9 months without that has been, it's been very nice."
Mavericks’ assistant coach Darrell Armstrong said Mavs CEO Cynt Marshall saw Whitley’s sign and asked if a meeting with Doncic could happen.
"I don't usually like to mess with guys when they are in their routine before the game,” Armstrong said. “But, I do know how Luka, his heart, how he likes to sign for people, so I just ran over there and grabbed him out of the stands."
This magical Mavs moment shows the kind of role model Doncic is as a player.
"A lot of superstars, they don't like to sign, you know, but Luka does all the time,” Armstrong said. “He signs. I always tell people you just never know what a smile or a greeting to somebody can do for their life."
Now, this young boy has a memory to last a lifetime while helping raise awareness about his life.
"When he has a seizure it doesn't look like what everybody else would see,” Bekah Whitley said. “I think that's one of the things that's really cool about it is that we are getting a platform to talk about seizures and what it actually means."
The Whitleys are from Kansas. The tickets were a Christmas gift for Brayden.
Since Doncic signed both shoes, Brayden said he’s giving his older brother one of them since he is a good big brother.
