Not Shelden Williams. The 6’9 power forward spent the weekend traveling to Ekaterinburg (God bless you) , Russia to see his wife Candace Parker and their nine-month old child, Lailaa. The two currently reside in Russia while Parker completes her women’s basketball season there.

Via the Boston Herald:

Williams knew it would be a difficult turnaround, but he got his coach’s blessing.

“I wanted him to (go),” Rivers said. “You’ve got a wife that’s in Russia. Go see her. I told him, ‘Most likely you’ll be late and miss the practice and we’ll take some money from you, but I think that’s what you should do. It’s worth it.’ I knew it would be tight.”

Williams hadn’t seen his girls since December.

“Any time you’re away from your wife and your firstborn, it’s going to be rough,” he said. “That’s one of the main reasons why I took that trip. It was great seeing them. To see my daughter and how much she’s changed in the last two months was great.”

As happy as Doc was to let Williams go see his wife and daughter, there’s a cruel twist:

He’ll still be fined for returning late and missing Monday night’s practice.