John Wall’s mother, Frances Pulley, dies of cancer
Frances Pulley, mother of NBA star John Wall, has died after a long battle with cancer, according to a tweet posted by Wall’s college coach, Kentucky’s John Calipari.
Pulley was 58.
Wall is from Raleigh and graduated from Word of God Christian Academy. He currently plays for the Washington Wizards and is a former NBA All-Star.
Wall was especially close with his mother. After Wall’s father died from liver cancer when Wall was 9, Pulley encouraged him to “try to do something better with life,” he told the NBA in 2014. It was then that Wall saw “an opportunity in basketball.’
In a series of tweets on Friday, Calipari wrote of Wall and Pulley. “The job she did raising John into the man he is today — incredible. Everything John is today — humble, a servant leader, a man of God — he got from her.”
Wall’s mom encouraged him to stay out of trouble and give back to others, including family.
At a 2013 press conference after the Wizards awarded Wall an $80 million, five-year contract extension, he broke down talking about how much his mother had sacrificed for his family. He said she worked “three to four jobs” and taught him to “strive to be a better person,” according to an NBA YouTube video.
“It was like a breathtaking moment, seeing my mom and seeing everything she worked for,” Wall told the Washington Post after that press conference. “I mean, I do this because I love the game of basketball and I love playing it, but you also do it for her, as a single parent and what she had to do to raise us and I feel I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity, especially, to take care of her for the rest of her life and do other things in the community.”
In his 2017 Kentucky Hall of Fame induction speech, Wall, through tears, said Pulley told him, “You can either go down the same road as your dad and your brothers, or you can be somebody very special and change our family’s lives.”
He also got choked up during the speech when he said: “Thank you for being my mom. She would sacrifice sometimes not paying the light bill just so I could go play basketball.”
Pulley is known to have been very involved with the John Wall Family Foundation, a charitable organization based in Raleigh.
On Friday, Wall posted a picture of himself about to hug his mom on the sideline of a Wizards’ game. “Love Ya,” the caption said with broken heart and ok emojis.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 9:58 PM.