Best of SI: Sports Agent Buddy Baker Shares Parent's Story After Losing Them to COVID-19

The Bakers’ unshakeable, unbreakable bond began the same way as so many love stories, with a boy who met a girl at a party and soon after pledged to love her, unconditionally, for the rest of his life. Stuart Baker never broke his promise. Not after he bumped into his soulmate, Adrian, more than half a century ago at a sorority in Queens. Not when they started dating. Nor when they married. Nor when they spent the next 51 anniversaries celebrating the life they’d always wanted, which was exactly the life they’d built.

Their world centered on their two children, Sheri and her brother, Buddy. Sheri would become a lead operations associate at a bank. The boy would grow up to become a successful and respected NFL and NBA agent with clients ranging from retired wideout Doug Baldwin to Colts tight end Jack Doyle to the Griffin twins, Seahawks teammates so close they wrote a book titled Inseparable, their lives so intertwined they often can seem like a single person. Just like Buddy’s parents.

Buddy says that title only begins to describe the Bakers. His mother learned to enjoy golf so that she could spend time watching the game with his father, and later in life, they sat there on the couch, day after day, their knees touching as if glued in place. It’s not that they spent every chance they could in the same place; it’s that they never spent more than 10 minutes or so at home not in the same room.

This is a preview from one of SI's recent top stories. Click here to read the rest of "Sports Agent Buddy Baker Lost Both of His Parents—Six Minutes Apart—After They Contracted COVID-19" for FREE at Sports Illustrated!