88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster also attended the practice.
88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster also attended the practice.Lacey Foster
The Boston Celtics called her “Coach Nannie” during a special visit to TD Garden on Monday.
Ruby “Nannie” Lacey, an 88-year-old grandmother and basketball fanatic, spent the day with her idol Jayson Tatum and the Celtics team after being flown to Boston by Fanatics, a sports merchandise company partnering with the Celtics.
Fanatics discovered Lacey in a TikTok video posted by her granddaughter, Lacey Foster, 26. In the video, Lacey tells her granddaughter that her dream job is to coach the Celtics for a day.
@laceydfoster
She watches every single game on @NBA league pass and she’s the biggest @Boston Celtics fan
♬ original sound - Lacey
Exactly one month after the video was posted, Lacey’s dream became a reality. On Sunday, she and her family were flown out from Atlanta, Ga. to attend a Celtics practice, tour TD Garden and take media day pictures with her favorite team, all before attending her first-ever NBA game on Tuesday.
But, Lacey wasn’t always a die-hard basketball fan.
Her love for the game only picked up after watching the 2017 NBA draft, when then 19-year-old Jayson Tatum was picked by the Celtics following just one season of college basketball at Duke University.
Lacey knew in that moment that he was going to be “special,” Foster said.
20celticsgrandma - 88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster attended the practice with Ruby. (Lacey Foster)
20celticsgrandma - 88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster attended the practice with Ruby. (Lacey Foster)Lacey Foster
The mother of three and grandma of five began closely following Tatum’s career and with it her love spread to the entire Celtics team and the game of basketball.
“She knows more about basketball than anyone in the family,” Foster said of her grandmother. “She won’t go to dinner if there’s a Celtics game on. She hates to miss a game.”
Foster said her family had to get Lacey an NBA league pass so that she could watch every game.
“I always joke that she has reverse seasonal depression,” Foster said. “She’s so happy about all the games in the winter. In the summer, she just asks, ‘When does basketball come back?’”
Born in Virginia and later living between Maryland and Georgia, Lacey had never met any of the Celtics players or attended a game before this week’s trip.
“She was so happy to talk to the players,” Foster said. “When she met Jaylen Brown, she told him the biggest teams to worry about are Oklahoma City and Cleveland.”
Becoming invested in basketball has helped Lacey’s mind “stay sharp,” Foster said.
20celticsgrandma - 88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster attended the practice with Ruby. (Lacey Foster)
20celticsgrandma - 88-year-old Ruby Lacey flew out from Atlanta to attend a Celtics practice and meet all of her favorite players, specifically Jayson Tatum. Her granddaughter Lacey Foster attended the practice with Ruby. (Lacey Foster)Lacey Foster
“I think basketball has truly added a level of excitement to her life... If you look at her tabs on her computer, its all basketball.”
When Fanatic reached out to Foster, she had no idea what they had planned.
A package arrived at the family’s home in Atlanta last week with costume Celtics gear and a note stating that the family would be meeting the Celtics in a matter of days. Lacey cried when she read the note, Foster said.
Lacey decided to buy new shoes for the occasion, picking up a fresh pair of Tatum 3 basketball shoes, a collaboration between the player and Nike.
“She was so excited to meet Jayson Tatum, she jumped up... He said ‘I like your shoes, we’re matching,‘” Foster said.
Lacey visited the team on their media photo day, snagging a spot in the middle for several team pictures and joining Jaylen Brown in his shoot.
Her love for basketball has given Lacey a new focus in life, which Foster said has kept her going.
“Being able to watch things other than the news and game shows has been so good for her,” Foster said. “A lot of people complain about the long seasons in basketball, how many games there are, but she’s so grateful. She never gets tired of them.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Fanatics (@fanatics)
Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at sarah.mesdjian@globe.com. Follow her on X @sarahs_journal.