In March 1996, the Sonics honored McMillan's 10th season with the team by turning their annual season-ticket holder event into a "This is Your Life"-style tribute. McMillan's brother, Randy, and his high school coach, Preston McClain, were amongst those in attendance. But the highlight of the evening came when Tyson came out from behind a curtain, stunning McMillan.

McMillan spent the last week remembering his late mother with family and friends in his hometown of Raleigh. Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty

That was one of the many memories McMillan recalled last week following his mother's death in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C. on Sunday, January 30, at the age of 62.

"I had been out here 10 years, and she had never made the trip - I could never get her on a plane," McMillan said Monday after completing his first Sonics practice since returning to Seattle. "We were having this ceremony, and she walks out from behind the curtain and I'm wondering, 'How did she get out here? Train? Bus? Not a plane.' She had rode her first plane to get out here. It was the first time she had ever seen my house, to see the home that I had."

It was a moving experience for Ms. Tyson, who was deeply religious.

"She just started praying, thanking God. She saw that I was blessed. … She knew what I had gone through, what we had gone through as a family. Me living in a home like that, she knew I had been blessed."

Ms. Tyson was diagnosed with kidney disease several years ago, and was at one point ill enough that McMillan left the Sonics for a game to be with her in the hospital. More recently, she had been bothered by heart trouble, making McMillan's recent visits more meaningful. He saw his mother at the end of December when the Sonics played in Charlotte, and again in early January when he returned home for his aunt's funeral.

McMillan knew to savor the last visit.

"I remember driving and really talking to her, thinking, 'This may be the last time that I see her,' because I'm so far, and I'm not coming back any time soon," said McMillan.

After his mother's condition turned for the worst, McMillan was only barely able to return home in time to see her before her death. He arrived in Raleigh at 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the 30th, and two hours later, Ms. Tyson had passed. The experience affected McMillan even more than he expected.

"My mother's been ill for six years, and you somewhat think you kind of start preparing for it, especially when they get a certain age or certain illness, and you find out you're not (prepared)," he said. "You're somewhat lost, because you have her for your entire life, and now she's gone."

With Associate Head Coach Dwane Casey taking the reins of the Sonics and telling him to take as much time as he needed, McMillan stayed in Raleigh nearly a week. Funeral services for Ms. Tyson were held on Friday, in what McMillan described as an "unbelievable ceremony."

"We had to limit the number of people that spoke," he said. "The ceremony wasn't short, but we had to limit it. We had certain people that were really close to her - head of the foster parents [the Wake County foster-care program; after her own seven children were grown, Ms. Tyson cared for 13 foster children]; one of her adopted kids; a couple of long-time friends and a few ministers."

Seeking to better explain the emotions of the funeral, McMillan pointed reporters toward an article published in the local The News & Observer Saturday, "McMillan's mom one in a million."

As he dealt with his mother's passing, McMillan was buoyed by the support of the Sonics players, coaches and organization as well as other organizations.

"You don't know how much that stuff means to you until you get in a situation like that," he said. "All of a sudden, you see a big old huge flower from Howard (Schultz), Wally (Walker), Rick (Sund), Ray (Allen). The Timberwolves, the Bobcats, the Chicago Bulls all sent flowers to the service. The players are calling you, leaving voice mails. That meant a lot."

Now, after returning to Seattle on Sunday afternoon, McMillan will get back to work, to the grind of being an NBA head coach. The New Orleans Hornets loom Tuesday at KeyArena (7:00 p.m., FSN, TICKETS), with four other games on the schedule before the All-Star break comes in a week and a half. Casey suggested during McMillan's absence that focusing on basketball would help McMillan avoid thinking about his mother's death, and McMillan said he was eager for today's practice.

"It was like training camp this morning," said McMillan. "I was up at 5:30, ready to roll, ready to get in here and go to work."