When Brook hit the winning shot with two seconds left in overtime Saturday, giving Stanford an 82-81 victory over Marquette, their mother, Debby Ledford, was watching from near the Cardinal’s bench. Her presence and the location of the arena — near
Disneyland, in Anaheim, Calif. — were appropriate. Ledford, a high school teacher, raised them as a divorced single parent and encouraged a wide-ranging education along with sports.
She also took them to the theme park to spark their imaginations. “As a kid, it seemed like there were no boundaries to the park; it seemed like it went on and on forever,” Robin said. “It really blurred the line between what was real and what was fantasy.”
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Although the family was never poor, Ledford scrimped financially to raise her sons. They are now on the verge of wealth, and it seemed reasonable to ask about a term often associated with Disney and overused during this tournament: Cinderella.
“I’ve read some of the original versions; it definitely didn’t originate in Western Europe,” Robin said of the story. “It was Walt Disney’s favorite film. He felt it embodied him the most, the story of rags to riches.”
While in Anaheim, did he return to Disneyland? No, Robin said with a smile; “I’m not going in the park until the tournament’s over.”
