A fellow at Target on Marsh Lane was sorta wondering what was going on. It was about 4 p.m. on Friday, December 19, and the store was prepared for Christmas shoppers, but things seemed different. Out front was parked the Dallas Mavericks bus and a whole lot of media was gathered around at the store’s side door.
As a taller-than-tall man with three children at his side strolled through the door with the entourage of Maverick handlers, security and media inches away, a couple of women stayed behind. Leaning on a block, one tied her shoe laces. They looked just like a couple of shoppers, but they were Dallas Maverick’s Tyson Chandler’s wife Kimberly Chandler and her mom Danielle “Danny” Brown.
They quickly followed the crowd into the Target inner sanctuary.
In the employee lunch room were a coterie of single-parent families. The less-than 3-foot-tall munchkins didn’t seem to care about their families’ status as they bent their heads far back looking at the 7’1” Dallas Maverick Tyson Chandler. He looked like Gulliver surrounded by Lilliputians. Just making his way into the room required a little head bending by the basketball center.
He had brought his family including Kimberly, their kids (Sacha, Tyson II and Sayge), his mom Vernie Threadgill, Danny and other members of the Chandler/Brown clan to meet these families for a shopping spree.
With the help of Hain Celestial US, the Mavericks, Chase and Target, it seems the Chandler clan had arranged for each family to have $250 Target gift cards, tickets to soccer games and Christmas dinner. And each of the Chandlers were going to escort the families on their shop-athon.
As the adults and kids headed into the aisles pushing carts, it was obvious that the Chandler household was pretty typical. Mom Kim was like a benevolent general commandeering her brood and her assigned family. Meanwhile Tyson pushed a cart with one of the children in the seat and Vernie in the lead. The tyke explained to Tyson “that toys are more important than clothes.”
The occasion for the Chandlers’ emphasis on single-parent families was the result of Tyson and Vernie having had lean Christmases and having been on the receiving end of others’ generosity.
By the way, someone asked Tyson what he was going to give his mom and Danny for Christmas. Like an embarrassed teenager, his face lit up with a big smile and he admitted that no matter how he tried, he had learned they both wanted purses. Despite other attempts, it was always the same — purses.
Hey, Tyson! It’s a girl thing.