The Bulls couldn’t handle Curry and the Warriors. | Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

There’s no reason the Bulls can’t get a win — or two — in L.A. before moving on to Portland and Denver and, hopefully, not behaving as if those places are worlds apart from, say, Toronto and Boston.

The Bulls aren’t in the business of hitting the West Coast and winning a bunch of basketball games. Nobody in the Eastern Conference is. It just doesn’t happen, at least not often. Put it this way: When the Nets completed a 5-0 swing out West last season, their fans and the media all but threw them a parade.

So, yeah, the Bulls got a five-game trip started Friday — with an all-too-rare national TV appearance — and caught the business end of Steph Curry’s wizardry and the Warriors’ overall excellence. It was a blowout, a mismatch, an unsightly display by the visitors. No surprise.

But most teams have problems, small ones and big ones. The Bulls, as pleasing as their play has been, certainly do. No Nikola Vucevic on this trip, for one. No Patrick Williams for months to come, such a bummer.

Problems? The Clippers, whom the Bulls visit Sunday, are — at best — pretend contenders without Kawhi Leonard, who might not be back on the court this season. The Lakers, whom the Bulls meet the following night, might be the most miserable bunch in the league. Can LeBron James stay healthy anymore? Will Russell Westbrook ever get it together? Is Anthony Davis just a big softy? Does this alleged Western Conference favorite lack heart?

Heading west is no excuse for getting your rear end kicked in. There’s absolutely no reason the Bulls can’t get a win — or two — in L.A. before moving on to Portland and Denver and, hopefully, not behaving as if those places are worlds apart from, say, Toronto and Boston.

Here’s what’s happening:

SUN 14

Seahawks at Packers (3:25 p.m., Ch. 2)

Back from injury: Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson. Back from you know darn well what: Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers. There is absolutely no truth to the rumor the Packers let Rodgers’ pal Joe Rogan script the team’s first 15 offensive plays.

NWSL semifinal: Red Stars at Portland (4:30 p.m., CBSSN)

Hurdles get no higher than this one on the home pitch of the best team in the league. The Red Stars remember all too well a 5-0 defeat at Providence Park in May.

Chiefs at Raiders (7:20 p.m., Ch. 5, Peacock)

Looking up at their biggest rivals in the AFC West standings? That’s a strange spot for the Chiefs to be in. KC goes for a 14th win in the last 17 meetings in this series.

Bulls at Clippers (8:30 p.m., NBCSCH)

Lately, the Clips of Paul George, Reggie Jackson and Nicolas Batum are proving to be a pretty tough out. The Bulls are just happy Curry isn’t in the building.

MON 15

CBB: Illinois at Marquette (6 p.m., FS1)

Still no Kofi Cockburn — who’s serving the final game of a bogus three-game NCAA suspension — in this Gavitt Tipoff Games matchup of the Big Ten vs. the Big East. The Illini might as well bring home a “W” anyway.

Rams at 49ers (7:15 p.m., ESPN)

Let’s have our first look at newly acquired linebacker Von Miller and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in Rams uniforms, shall we? You might find this hard to believe, but first-year QB Matthew Stafford never had this kind of star power around him in Detroit.

Bulls at Lakers (9:30 p.m., NBCSCH, NBA)

Ultimately, it boils down to one question: Will there be more Alex Caruso Lakers jerseys or Alex Caruso Bulls jerseys in the house?

TUE 16

“Man in the Arena” (ESPN+)

It’s the premier of a nine-part documentary series about Tom Brady styled in the manner of “The Last Dance” and focusing mainly on his years in New England. It turns out Brady won a whole bunch of Super Bowls with the Patriots. Who knew?

Warriors at Nets (6:30 p.m., TNT)

Kevin Durant and the Nets are the betting favorites to win the NBA title. Curry and the Dubs have been the best team in the league so far. Strap in for a mighty good one.

WED 17

CFB: Northern Illinois at Buffalo (6 p.m., ESPN2)

One more win and the surprising Huskies put the clamps on first place in the MAC West. Exciting, isn’t it? Oh, come on, like you have anything better to do on a Wednesday night than watch the clutchest football team in the state get after it.

Blackhawks at Kraken (9 p.m., TNT)

Those lovable screwballs in Seattle really went and named their team the Kraken, didn’t they? Man, it’s almost as fun to say that name as it is to chant “DEREK KI-ING” (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap).

“Hard Knocks in Season: the Indianapolis Colts” (9 p.m., HBO)

This is a fun new idea, isn’t it? Peek behind the curtain at Carson Wentz, Jonathan Taylor and a bunch of other dudes who aren’t going to the playoffs.

THU 18

MLB awards: MVP (5 p.m., MLB)

We’re going way out on a limb and projecting the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani as the American League winner. You heard it here first, folks.

Patriots at Falcons (7:20 p.m., Fox-32, NFL, Amazon)

It’s probably too soon for a documentary series on Pats rookie QB Mac Jones. Maybe Bill Belichick, though?

Bulls at Nuggets (8 p.m., NBCSCH)

Not to tell coach Billy Donovan how to do his job, but we recommend he instruct his players not to challenge Nikola Jokic’s brothers to a fight in the parking lot.

SAT 20

CFB: Purdue at Northwestern (11 a.m., BTN)

A football game at Wrigley Field? You’ve got to see one of these if you haven’t before. Cubs scouts can put away the radar guns when the Wildcats are on offense.

CFB: Illinois at Iowa (1 p.m., FS1)

What’s left of the Illini’s bowl hopes is on the line as coach Bret Bielema returns to his alma mater. The man has a Hawkeyes tattoo on his leg and everything.

Read More

Read More

Read More

Wheaton North readies to move the ball for a touchdown against Willowbrook. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

All the scores from the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs.

CLASS 8A

Lincoln-Way East at Loyola, noon

Lockport at Glenbard North, 1

Marist at Glenbrook South, 1

Maine South at Neuqua Valley, 5

CLASS 7A

Mount Carmel at Brother Rice, 4

Wheaton North 10, Willowbrook 3

Hononegah at St. Rita, 3

Jacobs at Prospect, 7

CLASS 6A

Crystal Lake Central at Cary-Grove, 1

Prairie Ridge at Lake Forest, 1

East St. Louis at Lemont, 2:30

Crete-Monee at Washington, Ill., 1:30

CLASS 5A

St. Patrick at Sycamore, 2

Fenwick at Nazareth, 1

Marion at Kankakee, 3

Mahomet-Seymour at Morton, Ill., 1

CLASS 4A

Genoa-Kingston at Joliet Catholic, 7

Richmond-Burton vs. Phillips at Gately, 4

Freeburg at Rochester, 4

Breese Central at Sacred Heart-Griffin, 2

CLASS 3A

Reed-Custer at Byron, 2

Princeton at IC Catholic, 3

Williamsville at Tolono Unity, 2

Benton at Mt. Carmel, Ill., 2

CLASS 2A

Bishop McNamara at Wilmington, 5

Farmington at Tri-Valley, 1

Breese Mater Dei at #1 St. Teresa, 3

Pana at Nashville, 1

CLASS 1A

Abingdon-Avon at Ridgeview-Lexington, 1

Fulton at Lena-Winslow, 1

Central A&M at Arcola, 2:30

Athens at Carrollton, 1

Read More

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

Whether you call it ‘turmoil’ or ‘adversity,’ the team has battled its way into the NWSL semifinals.

If there was one word to define the 2021 National Women’s Soccer League season, it would be ”turmoil.” For the Red Stars, a word thrown around a lot is ”adversity.”

The Red Stars’ season started with a 5-0 loss to the Thorns, the team they’ll face in the semifinals Sunday in Portland, Oregon. In that match, Julie Ertz went down with what would turn out to be a season-ending injury.

Then they lost starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who suffered a knee injury in the Olympic semifinals.

As the Red Stars worked to find cohesiveness and establish a new identity on the front line, they leaned heavily on defender Sarah Gorden, who became the anchor of their back line in the absence of Ertz and Naeher.

They finished the regular season with an 11-8-5 record for 38 points and earned the No. 4 seed in the playoffs while navigating multiple league scandals.

Three NWSL head coaches and one general manager resigned or were fired in 2021. In late September, The Athletic published a story in which former players accused former Courage coach Paul Riley of sexual coercion. Riley subsequently was fired from the Courage and had his U.S. Soccer coaching license suspended. Lisa Baird resigned as commissioner.

The news was a catalyst for a stronger, more concerted effort by the NWSL Players Association to create change in the league.

”It’s been difficult,” the Red Stars’ Kealia Watt, a union rep, said last week. ”There were a couple of weeks where everyone was like, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to continue to play.’ It was just so much. Obviously, the victims who spoke out and victims who haven’t spoken out but who have endured abuse like that, it’s even harder for them.”

The union established a list of eight demands for the league, including creating an investigation committee, and said all have been met.

In the first week after The Athletic’s report, Red Stars coach Rory Dames said the team’s staff followed the players’ lead about how they wanted to proceed with their soccer responsibilities. He consulted players about whether they wanted to train and how they wanted to train.

The Red Stars had one match postponed in the fallout from The Athletic’s report before returning to finish the season.

”The most important thing is that players feel safe,” Dames said. ”Our group has done a really good job. I don’t know how else I would phrase that. How they’ve navigated everything, we’ve followed their lead.

”When it’s time to go on the field to train or play, they’ve been really good at putting their focus there for whatever amount of time that entails.”

Red Stars players have said that combining their job as pro athletes with their fight to establish a safer league has been challenging.

On Sunday, that challenge will continue when they face the top-seeded Thorns at Providence Park. The Thorns won the preseason Challenge Cup and claimed the NWSL Shield for having the best regular-season record.

Historically, the Red Stars haven’t fared well against the Thorns on the road. In the last four seasons — excluding the 2020 Challenge Cup, which was played in Sandy, Utah — the Red Stars are 0-5-1 against the Thorns in away games.

Read More

A 33-year-old man was found fatally shot Nov. 13, 2021, in East Garfield Park. | File photo

About 7:25 a.m., the 33-year-old was in the 700 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, when a vehicle pulled up to him and fired several shots in his direction.

A man was found fatally shot Saturday morning in East Garfield Park on the West Side.

About 7:25 a.m., the 33-year-old was in the 700 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, when a vehicle pulled up to him and fired several shots in his direction, Chicago police said.

He was found laying on the sidewalk and rushed to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name has not yet been released.

Area Four detectives are investigating.

Read More

Phillips’ Da’Kwan Phillips (7) makes the catch against Simeon in their 14-12 win at Gately Stadium in Chicago, Saturday, September 25, 2021. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun-Times

The Wildcats face Richmond-Burton (11-0) in a 4 p.m. Saturday quarterfinal at Gately Stadium.

Joe Winslow never planned to be a football coach.

He played at Dunbar for one of the Public League’s most respected coaches, Glenn Johnson, before going on to a college career at Loras and Iowa Wesleyan.

After college, he stopped by Dunbar to see Johnson one day. “He was like, ‘Help me with my quarterbacks,'” Winslow said.

So Winslow did for a few years before taking time off to coach his youngest child in Pop Warner. He came back to Dunbar, where one of his fellow assistants was a young Canadian native named Troy McAllister.

“One Christmas, Troy called me, said, ‘Happy holidays. I want you to be my assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Phillips,'” Winslow said.

The rest is Public League football history. From modest beginnings — 12 players showed up for the first practice of the McAllister era in 2010 and that team finished 2-7 — the Wildcats have put together a run of success unprecedented in Public League football history.

The Wildcats reached the state quarterfinals for the first time in 2013 and have made it that far every year since, winning Public League football’s first two state titles in 2015 (Class 4A) and 2017 (5A).

Phillips kept playing up, moving to 6A in 2018 and 7A in 2019, reaching the quarterfinals each year. But much has happened between that final eight berth two years ago and now.

Like the rest of the state, the Wildcats were idled last fall in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Winslow, then still Phillips’ offensive coordinator, asked McAllister for and received permission to take some Wildcats to play on the seven-on-seven circuit.

Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun-Times
Phillips’ Tyler Turner (17) passes downfield against Simeon.

That was a ray of light in a dark time. But then in January came the unexpected death of Mike Larson, the Wildcats’ charismatic and creative defensive coordinator.

“It was rough losing him,” Winslow said. “He was an uncle or father figure to these kids.”

Then in May, McAllister left Phillips after 11 seasons to take the Sandburg job.

“At first, it was a question, just [because of] my loyalty to Troy, if I was going with him,” Winslow said. “We talked — it’s not like we’re not best friends. He told me, “It’s your time. This is what you’ve been wanting your whole life. [Phillips players] trust you, they believe in you.'”

Damien Thomas, a senior left guard, will attest to that.

“What makes coach Joe a great coach is he cares,” Thomas said. “If we’re struggling, he takes time out of his day for us. [He’s] caring, trustworthy.”

It’s helped the Wildcats deal with more adversity than most teams. Last month, practices were canceled for three days after a 14-year-old student and a security guard were shot outside the school.

But the Wildcats got together on their own to run and stay in shape, calling Winslow on FaceTime to show him their commitment. And they showed their dedication in other ways, such as showing up at school at 6 a.m. four days a week to work with strength and conditioning coach Joe Bibbs.

Still, there were tough times on the field. Phillps opened with road games at Batavia and Mount Carmel, losing 33-6 and 42-0. But Winslow saw improvement in the second half of the Mount Carmel game, and the Wildcats have ripped off nine straight wins since.

The turning point came in a 14-12 win over Simeon in Week 5 on Tyler Turner’s 10-yard TD pass to Avante Savage with 10 seconds left.

“That boosted all of our confidence,” Thomas said. “For us to get a game-winning touchdown with second remaining, it was like, ‘Wow, we can actually do this.'”

That wasn’t the only echo of past glories for the Wildcats. For the playoffs, Winslow and his defensive coaches have switched from the 4-2 defense they’d been running this season to Larson’s 50-match alignment.

“I know the concepts and how to run it,” Winslow said. “I just didn’t know if I could teach both sides of the ball.”

But the Wildcats have adjusted to the switch and now they face Richmond-Burton (11-0) in a 4 p.m. Saturday quarterfinal at Gately Stadium.

It’s the latest big game for a program that has seen plenty of them in the last decade. And though some of the faces of the sidelines have changed, the traditions — Larson’s defensive scheme among them — remain.

“Mike is still a part of what we do and always will be,” Winslow said.

And the first-year head coach and longtime staff member isn’t going anywhere either.

Read More

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

New Showtime documentary covers pivotal moments in iconic career — so many of them shaped by Chicago

Before Kevin Garnett made a decision that altered the NBA’s trajectory forever, he made one that altered his own.

His choice to move to Chicago and play his senior year at Farragut Academy followed a fight he was involved in before his senior year at Mauldin High School in Mauldin, South Carolina. Garnett’s mother had two options for where her son could finish high school: Los Angeles or Chicago.

His senior year at Farragut, which ended with him going straight to the NBA, is a well-documented story, especially in Chicago. The announcement that Garnett was turning pro came on May 16, 1995, at a Home Run Inn pizzeria on Chicago’s West Side.

More than 30 players followed suit in the 10 years thereafter, including Kobe Bryant in 1996 and LeBron James in 2003.

What’s less documented — until now, with the release of the new documentary “Kevin Garnett: Anything Is Possible” on Showtime — is how close Garnett came to finishing his high school career in California.

“My mother wanted me to have a different setting,” he said this week in a conference call with reporters. “We considered California. When considering California and all that goes into it, L.A. in particular, it was a lot — a lot of distractions that she thought would be overwhelming for me.”

ESTHER LIN, SHOWTIME
The two-hour film takes viewers through pivotal moments in Garnett’s career, starting with his early basketball days, when he hid from his mother that he was playing.

Chicago didn’t lack distractions, he added with a laugh, but he felt he’d have a better support system there as the top-rated high school basketball player in the country.

It helped, too, that he was joining a program coached by legendary William “Wolf” Nelson and would be playing alongside star shooting guard Ronnie Fields.

Farragut, Garnett said, was a better fit. That didn’t stop his future Celtics teammate Paul Pierce, then an AAU teammate, from trying to sell him on the idea of California daily the summer before his senior year.

“When I found out he was going to Farragut, I was like, ‘Man, what could have been?’ ” Pierce says in the documentary.

Chicago is woven into the film from start to finish. Nelson and Fields are key storytellers, painting a picture not just of Garnett’s time at Farragut but of all the ways Chicago influenced who he became as a pro.

The person and player fans came to know Garnett as — a loud, charismatic, trash-talking, hold-nothing-back competitor — is who he always was. Nelson and his teammates valued those parts of his personality instead of trying to quell them, as previous coaches had.

“Chicago has those built-in rivalries,” Nelson said. “It becomes who is going to bark the loudest. His trash-talking was warranted.”

Nelson used to take Garnett, Fields and other Farragut players to Kennedy-King College to play pickup games on the weekends with some of the top players in the city, including another local high school star and future NBA champion: Kenwood’s Nazr Mohammed.

Every time Garnett walked into the gym, Nelson recalled, someone would tell him Mohammed was looking for him. It wasn’t until months later in a preseason tournament that they finally met on the court.

“When they jumped the ball up, Nazr started talking right there,” Nelson said. “He told Kevin, ‘I’m your welcome-to-Chicago party.’ It went nuts after that, and Kevin had something like 30 points.”

The two-hour film takes viewers through pivotal moments in Garnett’s career, starting with his early basketball days, when he hid from his mother that he was playing. His decision to go pro is followed by a detailed account of his 12 seasons with the Timberwolves. One particular highlight: the $126 million contract he signed in 1997. Not coincidentally, the next collective-bargaining agreement between the NBA and the players’ union included, for the first time, a maximum player salary and a five-year rookie scale.

His 2008 NBA championship with the Celtics — marked by his famous “Anything is possible” quote — is how the story ends. In the final minutes, Garnett reflects on a Hall of Fame career that earned him a spot on the league’s 75th anniversary team.

As he does, he thinks back to a pivotal moment in Chicago. It was a weekend like so many others, and Garnett was looking for a gym to play in. He ended up at one of Michael Jordan’s. Sitting on a bench, watching, was Isiah Thomas.

All year, reports had surfaced about Garnett considering skipping college, but that afternoon, Thomas shared advice that gave Garnett added confidence to make that decision.

It’s one moment of many that almost didn’t happen. If one decision had been different, Garnett’s story — starting with his time in Chicago — might never have been.

“Countless categories in which you have to have expertise in, I built while being in the city of Chicago,” Garnett said. “It gave me this armor, if you will — a second skin, as I call it. I attribute a lot of my growth to the city of Chicago.”

Read More

Zach LaVine and the Bulls have seen lower overall scoring in the NBA this season. | Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

For Under takers, shooting woes, fewer fouls, new balls yield good results in new season.

LAS VEGAS — I sit beside handicapper Noah Parker, in the VIP section of the Green Valley Ranch sportsbook, and squirm. It’s nothing Parker says or does, but what we’re about to watch.

The NBA has been completely off my radar for several years. Having witnessed Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Bird, Ice Man, Marques Johnson and Jordan, today’s game pales by comparison.

And the product, this season, has been historically underwhelming. Games had been finishing under their designated totals at a 62.3-percent clip. In each of the last 30 seasons, reports ESPN, the Under percentage had been between 47 and 52.

For enlightenment, I meet with the 37-year-old Parker, a New York City native and former member of the U.S. Marine Corps who is an ace NBA prognosticator for the Against the Number service.

It’s Nov. 4. We watch Miami, at home, get outscored by Boston, 33-9, in the second quarter. Celtics win, 95-78. The game’s Vegas total was 213 1/2 .

“Scores have come way back to earth, and people aren’t used to that,” says Parker. “No fouls are being called. Happened quickly.”

Indiana, at home against Miami, scored eight in the third quarter on Oct. 23 but rallied to win in overtime. Even with the extra frame, the game finished under by 30 points. The Celtics scored 11 in the fourth against the Bulls on Nov. 1.

Brooklyn scores 11 in the second quarter in Detroit on Nov. 5, when Minnesota nets 12 in the fourth against the Clippers. A night later, Portland tallies 12 in the fourth against the Lakers.

The league’s switch from Spalding to Wilson basketballs is an alleged culprit, and Parker has heard players blame their shooting woes on the new ball.

“There are the rule changes, too,” he says. “The refs are definitely taking it easy with the whistles. We’ve been used to totals in the 230s and 220s. They’ll adjust to 218, 215, even 210.”

That kick that Reggie Miller once employed on the perimeter, to create contact with an opponent and attract a foul, on that defender, which James Harden and others adopted?

“That’s now an offensive foul,” says Parker. “It’s funny, because I used that to my advantage when I played.”

POP-A-SHOT

Social media started trumpeting this Under phenomenon Nov. 3. “The numbers are being adjusted on a daily basis,” warned one observer.

That night, seven of 11 games still finished Under, igniting a three-night wave in which 19 of 25 games didn’t hit their totals. That pumped the season Under rate to 64.8 percent.

Last Saturday and Sunday, at a combined 6-8, it began leveling. Monday and Tuesday, Unders went 5-6. Six of Wednesday’s 13 games finished Under. Its season percentage dipped to 60.3.

However, the dozen squads whose games finished Under most frequently were doing so, through Wednesday, at a 71-percent rate (92-37-2).

Of those, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Denver and Minnesota games were staying Under by ridiculous double-digit averages, their combined rate being 76.7 percent (33-10).

The Nets (9-3) and Thunder (8-2) play Sunday in Oklahoma.

Fewer fouls were indeed being called, and it’s been an unprecedented silence of the whistles. Through mid-week, an all-time NBA-low 18.9 fouls were being called per game.

Games averages of 19.8 free-throw attempts and 15.2 makes represented new basements, too. In the history of the NBA, there had never been fewer than 20 free throws attempted per game in any single season.

“The refs are definitely taking it easy with the whistles,” says Parker. “They’re letting them play. It isn’t like the eighties or nineties. But fewer fouls equal fewer stops, so it’s a much more fluid game.”

With much clanging of the rims. Never before have games averaged 35.8 3-point attempts, and players’ 34.4-percent long-range marksmanship is their worst since 1998-99, when it was 33.9 percent.

It’s a boardwalk carnival game.

Where have you gone, Julius, Abdul-Jabbar and Jordan?

WHICH CLUB, KD?

The NBA hasn’t figured in my wagering schemes since Sunday, March 4, 2018, when Philly was giving a mere 1 1/2 points at Milwaukee, which had dropped four in a row.

I bet the 76ers, confident they were better than the Bucks. Philly led, 40-21. In the second half, however, Milwaukee scored 50 of 67 points during a 17-minute stretch and won, 118-110. I disowned the league. Kaput.

Parker nods slowly. He doesn’t deal with NBA totals, focusing solely on certain underdog side action.

“I know,” he says. “You can sweat it out until the final two minutes and still lose on a buzzer beater. And inside those two minutes, an opponent is asking Kevin Durant what club he’s going to tonight.”

Parker does very well. He’s bearish on the Bulls, who won eight of their first 11 games, going 8-3 against the spread, too.

“I didn’t think they’d start that fast,” says Parker. “I’m not knocking them, but I think they’ll regress.”

Bookmakers, he knows, are fine-tuning their totals.

“People have always expected NBA games to fly over totals, with garbage points. For years, there have been so many points scored in NBA games. You know how the sharps will react. If there’s a trend, it’s bound to go the other way.

“If it’s the basketball, maybe they’ll soon get the feel of it. But all this, in the span of one offseason? It’s a bit weird.”

Sources: Basketball-Reference.com and TeamRankings.com were tapped for this article.

Read More

After husband Robert’s death, Teresa Jones aims to ease other families’ pain.

When Teresa Jones reflects on the life she shared with her late husband, Robert Lee Jones Jr., she says her most enduring feeling is gratitude that they shared 26 happy years of marriage, led fulfilling lives together and stayed hopeful right up until his death from a brain cancer called Glioblastoma. The disease is far from the focal point, she says.

“He lived out the rest of his life happy, showing love and showing kindness,” Teresa Jones said of her husband, who was a minister, worked in maintenance and sang gospel songs in his family’s music group since he was a child.

Robert, who was 65, died July 2, 11 months after his initial diagnosis. Even in his final weeks, Teresa said, “He never forgot a Bible verse or any of the songs. We still laughed and joked and talked. Even the saddest part was part of our love story.”

The couple’s cancer fight began in June 2020, when Robert started having longer, more severe seizures than the epileptic seizures he previously had experienced. An MRI exam showed he had a tumor on the left lobe of his brain. The tumor was malignant, and the doctor told them it was Glioblastoma.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Teresa said. “The first thing I asked, ‘What is this?’ I had never heard of it. The doctor said, ‘It’s malignant, and it’s incurable.’ ”

Most people, including Robert, rarely find out that they have the fast-spreading disease before Stage 4. Still, the Joneses decided to try every treatment available.

Robert had radiation, two rounds of chemotherapy that lasted about six months total and Novocure, in which electrodes are placed near the tumor in hopes that alternating electric fields can disrupt cancer-cell division. He wore a portable battery pack during the Novocure treatment so he could keep doing household chores, going to church and singing his alto part in the family gospel group, The Fantastic Jones Family Quartet, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in June.

None of the treatments could defeat his cancer, but Jones endured no pain and stayed active until a few weeks before his death.

Now, Teresa and her sister-in-law, Jackie Newman, CEO of the Springfield (Illinois) Housing Authority, are setting up an endowment in Robert’s name to raise money for research into Glioblastoma in hopes of finding a cure.

Teresa also talks with the wives of other Glioblastoma sufferers.

“I’m careful not to say, ‘I know how you feel,’ ” she said. “But I can say, ‘We may have similarities.’ I can say, ‘You are angry. You may feel hopeless and scared.’

“Through the entire time, I had hope,” Teresa said.

Teresa also appreciated that her employer, AARP, granted her paid time off to care for her husband. The non-profit advocacy organization lobbies for paid family leave for others in her position, too.

“We have a great benefits package with sick days, caregiving days and vacation days,” said Teresa, who works as the organization’s director of advocacy and outreach in Illinois.

“My managers and my colleagues came to my side during this whole time,” she said. “Never once did I have to worry about whether taking time off to be with my husband was endangering my job. My state director said, ‘The most important thing is your husband.’ “

Read More