Beno - The Lost Year

Great story.

That’s really special what Beno did. Stories like this help us all reflect on life and make re-adjust our priorities and focus on the things that matter most, our relationships with the people we love and enjoy.

Thanks for putting this out there.

Beno and his girlfriend must be such good people!

I hope your friend really was misdiagnosed, and that it turns out to be Lyme disease. Still a long road to recovery, but at least possible.

Beno taking time out of his personal life to be with your Friend’s son is beautiful story of humility and kindness. As for your friend, I will keep him and his family in my prayers.

That was a wonderful story. All we really see is the play on the court. But a person is much more than a digital image on the screen.

thoughts and prayers for your friend and his family. and i’ll be cheering extra hard for Beno this coming year.

Thanks for sharing it! :)

It’s great that some people don’t lose their way as human beings when all that money comes to them, as we know, many do.

Great story.

Thanks for sharing. Really great.

Remember, deep inside all of their hearts, professional sports players are real people with feelings and emotions.

I hope it was a misdiagnosis, because it would be horrible for your friend to die so early, even with all of the good things he has done for people.

Thank you for sharing, Madzillagd.

Glad to see the humanity in players who are all too often presented as one dimensional.

We never hear about the private lives of pro athletes unless they are arrested or beat up their wives. It’s nice to know that some athletes have a big heart and think of others in their time of need. What Beno did is fantastic and really warms my heart. I hope your friend was misdiagnosed and it sounds like it because there is no recovery from ALS. My best high school and college friend died about 2 years after the initial diagnosis of ALS. The disease slowly incapacitates the patient but remarkably does not involve the mental state. My friend never lost his sense of humor during this time. He once fell in the bathroom and ended up with his head under the water tank of the toilet and remained there for 2 hours before his wife found him. Making light of the situation he informed me that all the time under the water closet was not lost because he learned how to spell Kohler. (brand name on the bottom of the tank). He was a very proud individual and when he was completely dependant on others for his care he found a way and commited suicide He was like a brother to me and I will never forget him.

So, I will just thank you for sharing this real story about what life is like, and the highs and lows inherent. I hope your pal ends up with the milder diagnosis, and can come back from it.

and your buddy gets the good news, Disney can turn this into a movie!

Here We Care.

We should have given him a max.

Thanks so much for sharing. I hope with all my heart that your friend was indeed misdiagnosed. I’ll probably work with ALS patients at some point in my career and I know what a terrible disease it is. I’m so glad he’s able to at least watch his son play baseball and that Beno has been so amazing. It’s truly a wonderful thing to hear.

My pastor got ALS 5 years ago but has been blessed to be able to talk and keep many of his motor skills. He uses the desease to share his faith.

I am glad we have good character guys like Beno. Knowing we have him on the roster doing behind the scenes stuff, Cuz doing relief work, Sammy too, is just part of what makes the Kings special. Its a culture that I hope continues to be passed on to every new player that joins our roster.

He’ll, even the Maloofs give a little here and there. Its good to be a King.

I’m getting a beno jersey!!!!

Just wow. I was already a huge fan of his as a player, I thought he was our best player this year. Hearing he is such a good man is just going to make it even more fun to root for him.

It is a humbling story for us all.

I hope your friend makes a recovery.

I’m glad you finally decided to share this, understand why you hesitated but in a weird way I think the timing is just right. It got me thinking about the attachments that fans feel towards different players, how we all have our favorites for different reasons. When you think of someone like Vlade Divac, it wasn’t just his efforts on the court that made him such a fan favorite, it was the heart that he showed off the court that made so many fans love him so much. I don’t think any of us thought of Beno in a similar sort of way, because he’s very obviously not as comfortable with that kind of attention as Vlade and many others have been. I think it’s great that the “cat’s out of the bag” on Beno’s big heart, and I think there’s something to be said for how his humility kept it as such a private matter to him. I suspect the boy in your story won’t be the only fan forming a special attachment to Beno from now on.

Ashamed to admit that I was an all-star at dog-cussing Beno from 08’ though10’. Thanks for helping me distinguish the man from the athlete.

Think I need to go take a shower

great story! I love to hear stories of pro athletes being heroes. i have always thought that they had agreat responsibilty to be leaders because of the pedastoo which they are put upon. i am glad to hear that. beno deserves his.

Thanks for sharing…

I love Beno, feel he is often underrated. Nice to hear he has a big heart to help your friend’s family in very difficult circumstances.

Thank you for deciding to share it.

just reading through the comments there are some folks that have some experience with this kind of thing and know what it’s like. luckily my buddy has a great sense of humor so he’s taken it as much in stride as you possibly can i think.

as of today he’s working to hopefully get off the vent he’s on. that’s probably realistically about as far as he’ll be able to ‘recover’ but would still be a welcome thing and possibly allow him to be more mobile.

After about 2 years of physical therapy he can move his hands about an inch and his legs 6 inches. Doesn’t sound like much but if you have ALS you can’t do that – once you’ve lost strength you never get it back. If it is something else, the hope is not that you can gain back much more than he already has but more that he has stopped the progression of the disease. God willing he’ll be able to maintain his current level of health and watch his son grow up awhile longer.

Judging from the # of Recs, it deserves a spot on the Greenies, right Aykis16?

For the 20th time this day, this is a really good read on athletes like Beno and people like your friend, Madzillagd. Everyone at StR really feels for you.

I created a SBNation account just so I could give this a well deserved rec. I was unaware just how remarkable Beno is off the court. Thanks again for sharing, Sir.

Sometimes life can kick the crap out of you. Stories like these are really important, not just to give us some perspective, but as a reminder of what we can do as people to help alleviate that stress and pain for others.

Imagine if everyone re-read this story the instant they got up each morning and then emulated, in the most basic of ways, these qualities. The world would be a wonderful place.

I’m torn about having had shared this with a lot of people. While I hope it does not cause undo stress on your friends and Beno, I feel obligated to help spread such humanity and kindness.

Thanks again.