PORTLAND, Ore. — When Maurice Cheeks was coach of the Trail Blazers, he had a wonderful approach to dealing with stress, chaos and/or conflict that often intersects with life in the NBA.
“It’s just a moment,” he would say. “It will pass.”
But sometimes, moments don’t just pass. Sometimes moments live on, and help shape a life.
Just ask Natalie Zito (neé: Gilbert).
On Wednesday night in Portland, she was back in the building that changed her life, performing a stunning rendition of the national anthem, the same song that threatened to haunt her had it not been for Cheeks.
“I feel like it was yesterday that we were in this moment,” Zito said.
It was 22 years ago, 20 seconds deep into the National Anthem, when then-13-year-old Natalie Gilbert forgot the words. If her brain freeze wasn’t bad enough, it felt like the entire world was watching, and waiting for the silence to end. It was before Game 3 of the playoff series between Portland and Dallas. In front of 20,000 fans. And a national television audience.
“That moment where I was standing there looking around, that felt like forever,” Zito remembered. “But then … he was just like there. Like, the second I turned over my shoulder, he was right there and he was like, ‘No, we’re not gonna do this … you’re gonna finish this song.”‘
It became one of the most memorable and viral moments in national anthem history — Cheeks coaching her through the lyrics, one arm around her shoulder, the other conducting the sellout crowd to join in. She finished to a rousing ovation and melted into Cheeks’ chest.
“That’s a hard time in a young child’s life, where something like that happens on national television,” Zito said. “That moment really stuck with me.”
On Wednesday, the moment came full circle. With Cheeks on the sideline as an assistant coach with the New York Knicks, Zito stood at halfcourt and belted out “The Star-Spangled Banner.” There were no hiccups, no pauses, just full-throated perfection.
“I’d give it a solid nine,” Zito said.
how it started vs. how it’s going
https://t.co/ewjnNnecg2 pic.twitter.com/vHx1dL8Jla
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) March 13, 2025
Near the end of her rendition, the video board flashed to Cheeks, who was smiling ear-to-ear, proud as he was that day 22 years ago.
For Zito, Wednesday wasn’t so much closure as it was a celebration of that moment 22 years ago. It was, as Cheeks likes to say, just a moment. But it was a moment that she believes helped define her.
“It made me a much stronger individual,” Zito said. “I can face adversity or anything that’s coming at me. I just push through now, because that’s probably the worst thing that can happen to you when you are 13 and in middle school.”
Even as she became a national story, appearing on national talk shows, she said she was hazed first at Waluga Middle School in Lake Oswego, and later at West Linn High. She said she was “picked on” and when she walked down the halls, students whispered. She would seek comfort at lunch by eating in the privacy of a bathroom stall.
“Awful, right? The kids were brutal … brutal … all the way through high school,” she said. “But I feel like it really made me a stronger person, so I wouldn’t change a thing.”
After high school, she moved to Southern California and took voice lessons. She became a professional performer at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert and also sang at weddings, birthdays and corporate events. Later, she moved to San Francisco and met her future husband, Michael.
Now she is a vice president for Environmentally Conscious Recycling (ECR), and although she lives in Boise, Idaho, she visits the Portland ECR offices often. Coincidentally, ECR this season became a sponsor with the Blazers, and she told the team about her past, back when her last name was Gilbert.
She found out a month ago that she would sing on Wednesday, with Cheeks in attendance. Then as a surprise, she got to meet him pregame. A photograph was taken of the two and by the first quarter, she had a copy in hand.
“I owe a lot to this man,” she said, showing the photo. “He’s a really stand up human being. He was like, ‘How long has it been? How are you? How is life? Is this your family? … It was so great to see him all these years later, and he’s still just like a great, personable man.”
The Knicks would not allow Cheeks to speak, per team policy.
On Wednesday, her two daughters, ages six and seven, were at the Moda Center to see her perform the anthem. They had seen the video of mom, when she was 13, being rescued and coached through the most trying of moments. Now, they have a better version to remember.
“It’s the best example I can show my children,” Zito said. “That, hey, it’s OK to make mistakes. It’s all about how you recover from them.”
(Photo of Maurice Cheeks and Natalie Gilbert: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
