“Cold place, real cold,” Phelps said of Casper, Wyo., the Wildcats’ home. “It was a place where you go to practice and that’s it.”

Patricia stayed in Seattle, and struggled on her own.

“I think that was the hardest,” she said. “I had a lot of mood swings.”

Michael made it back to Seattle for the birth of the family’s first child, Jonathan, and stayed with Patricia until she left the hospital.

But he had to get back to the CBA, to try to keep his dream alive.

It may have been the L.A. Clippers’ fault.

The team decided to pick up Phelps to fill an empty spot and signed him to a 10-day contract.

Phelps, the CBA’s leading scorer, had drawn interest from several other NBA teams looking for a role player for the rest of the season.

“That hurt me,” Phelps said. “When the Clippers brought me in and let me go it was hard for me to get back in the league.”

By the time Phelps had made it back to the CBA most NBA teams had filled out their rosters, leaving Phelps without a place to go.

He decided to continue playing professionally overseas, signing a contract to play with San Miguel in the Philippines

That was an even bigger culture shock for Michael, but he was able to bring Patricia and Jonathan there after a month on his own.

“That was another experience that I learned a lot from,” Phelps said. “You see a lot of poverty. It makes you appreciate America, because we are a blessed country.”

While Michael had success with the basketball team, Patricia and Jonathan had problems of their own.

Patricia struggled to get used to the atmosphere, and Jonathan became sick, with a fever reaching 104 degrees.

The family stayed in the Philippines for two seasons, coming back to Vicksburg and Patricia’s mother’s house during the offseason.

After the second season, Michael realized his chance to play in the NBA again had passed.

“I got tired of the traveling,” he said. “It was just time to move on. I knew my shot at getting back to the NBA was over.”

The family returned to Vicksburg to settle down.

The Phelps soon had another son, Michael Jr., after moving back to Vicksburg.

Michael and Patricia settled into working life, getting used to a lifestyle somewhat different than that of the professional athlete.

They drifted away from church, too focused on other things.

The pain is what Patricia remembers.

Every day, every waking moment, pain.

The doctors informed her it was ovarian cancer. She went in for radiation treatment, but didn’t get better.

“I can’t even describe the pain,” she said. “The only thing the treatment was doing was relieving the pain.”

She settled into a pattern of sleeping most of the day, and began suffering from depression.

Patricia began to worry about whether she would be around to raise her boys.

Michael didn’t know what to do, Patricia said, so he drank.

Michael had never used drugs, never fallen into any of the moral or legal pitfalls that so many athletes, or people for that matter, do.

But he just couldn’t handle his wife’s illness.

“He wouldn’t open up,” Patricia said. “(Alcohol) was his crutch to relieve the pain.”

Both Patricia and Michael began to look beyond doctors and alcohol for a solution to the problem.

They began to go to church again, joining Standfield Missionary Baptist, and they both began to talk to God.

One morning, Patricia woke up and felt different. She turned to Michael and asked, “How does it feel not to hurt?”

Slowly, the pain began to fade away. And Michael began to see an answer to his problem.

“After I started receiving the word, God filled that taste I craved for with his word,” he said. “We began to understand God and have faith in him.”

Within five months of joining the church Michael had gotten past his drinking and Patricia was cleared by the doctors who earlier had said any cure for her cancer was beyond them.

Jonathan Phelps is now 14, and his father sees talent in him. Maybe a little of himself.

Michael would love for his son to become a basketball star, but more important is that he put God first.

Michael looks at himself and knows he didn’t do that for many years, and is making up for it now.

Both he and Patricia have been called to the ministry and are taking classes at Standfield.

“Now I enjoy life even more, simply because I know who I am,” Michael said. “It’s kind of like I’m on a different road now than I was on playing basketball. I’m on that narrow straight path.”

Being the best father, husband and church member he can be is what’s important now, he said.

That’s what he focuses on now, but he quickly taps his chest, smiles and says, “basketball is still here.”

He and his sons watch NBA games on TV, and Michael is able to tell his sons about his days in the league, going up against Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Julius Erving and several other players now in the Hall of Fame.

Geneva Phelps dreamed of this day, of her son focusing his life on being a husband and father first.

She dreamed he would raise his children in the church, the way she tried to raise him.

And as she talks about Michael, one thing is clear, Geneva couldn’t be prouder.