For the mothers, the opportunities in joining are substantial. In the NBA and other professional leagues, for players as well as their families, basketball is a business: Life-changing contracts are at stake, and publicly. The first pick in this year’s NBA draft, the 20-year-old Deandre Ayton, will make almost $30 million in his first three years in the league, not counting endorsements. Though the average salary for players in the NBA is higher than in peer leagues such as the NFL or MLB, the men signing these contracts are still young enough that they have only recently become eligible to sign such contracts at all. “He was 18 when he was drafted,” Shelly Davis Gordon says about her son Aaron Gordon, who plays for the Orlando Magic. “He didn’t turn 19 until they were in preseason. You’re really putting a kid into an adult world, and you’re not there to watch over them.”

Inside the world of basketball “superteam” economics

The realities of that world can prove daunting. A player signing with a new team must relocate to an unfamiliar city, establish a home, enroll any children in school—and then do it all over again if he is traded. He needs an agent, a lawyer, an accountant, and an investment manager. Now come endorsement offers—from sandwich shops, car emporiums, tuxedo rentals. Now come strangers with investment opportunities: Here’s a deal where, if you get in now, the sky is the limit. We only need one or ten or a hundred thousand dollars up front. What’s that money to you? Aren’t you rich now?

“The moms share those situations,” says Mona Lawton, the mother of the retired NBA player Al Harrington. “After draft day, vendors come aboard. They want to sell them watches, jewelry, cars. They want to sell them dreams. There’s a lot that people don’t see. It’s really hard to know who to trust.” While transitioning into the league, some players phone home three times a day. More than a few, dismayed by their initial experience with an agent, benefit from their mother learning what to expect: What percentage of a paycheck is an agent due? What’s a given agent’s reputation? Others, considering a switch from one agent or manager to another, benefit from their mother learning what paperwork is required. At regional and national meetings, MPBP offers those mothers workshops and guest speakers on financial education, as well as recommendations for reliable accountants.

To have a child drafted into the NBA or WNBA can be as disorienting of an experience for families as it is for the players themselves. “When your life changes overnight, it can be scary,” says Lucille O’Neal, the mother of Shaquille O’Neal and a former president of MPBP. “The best place to learn is from each other. Deloris, Michael Jordan’s mom, and Charcey, Charles Barkley’s mom—I’ll never forget what I learned from those two women. Some of us have gone through the very same experiences, and we felt we could be a help to one another.”