Basketball Ties Run Deep for GW's Chandler
6/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
June 29, 2011
This past season Erica Chandler wore the Buff and Blue of the GW women's basketball team, but during the past few weeks she donned different colors while cheering her brother on to an NBA Championship.
Erica, the 6-foot-4 center for the Colonials, is the younger sister of Tyson Chandler, the 7-foot-1 center for the blue and silver-clad Dallas Mavericks, who defeated the Miami Heat in six games in the NBA Finals.
"I feel great that my brother was able to accomplish his goal of winning the world championship this year. He is so excited and so are we," Chandler said of her family's excitement.
The Chandler family was in attendance for several of the games in the finals including Dallas victories in game two and the title clinching game six on June 12th in Miami's American Airlines Arena.
"We were screaming and rooting the Mavericks during every game and a couple of them almost gave me a heart attack, especially game-two when they came back from 15 points behind," said Chandler. "The Heat fans were talking so much junk to my family, but you should have seen how fast they left the arena after they lost," she said with a chuckle.
The family topped off the experience by attending the team's victory parade in Dallas.
Seeing Tyson reach the pinnacle of his professional career is the culmination of a long relationship between the Chandler family and basketball. Tyson and Erica's father, Frank, played collegiately at UC Irvine and instilled a love for the game in his children.
"I saw how much fun my dad and brothers had when they were playing so it tempted me to want to do the same," said Chandler. "My dad helped me to understand the hard work and dedication that is needed to play college sports because he played."
Erica began playing basketball as a youth after watching Tyson, nine years her senior, become a phenom at Dominguez High School in Southern California and eventually make the jump straight to the NBA in 2001.
The Chandlers eventually moved to the Charlotte, N.C., area where Erica's basketball career began to blossom. She starred for four seasons at Ardrey Kell High School and played for several of the Queen City's top AAU programs in NC Comets, NC Flight and Rise 2009.
Her brothers, Tyson and Ryan, gave her pointers as she worked to develop her game. "They would tell me different moves since we were all posts and they would always tell me to be aggressive and keep working hard."
When colleges came calling, Chandler eventually chose George Washington for her education, citing that it was the highly rated academics that drew her in and would offer her a degree that she knows will prepare her for the workforce. She plans to major in criminal justice.
During the season she says her brother Tyson sent her inspirational quotes every day that have to do with perseverance, hard work and goals to help her keep her head up. "Tyson was able to show me that whatever higher level you go to, you must plan your life around your sport and have people around you that will always support you."
That doesn't seem to be a problem in the Chandler family.
