Nia Long shares photo with grown son who strongly resembles her

Nia Long recently took to Instagram to share a lovely photo with her eldest son and some of his baseball teammates, showing how supportive she is with the boy’s love for sports.

Nia Long and her 17-year-old son, Massai, seem to have had a great time at the teenager’s last high school baseball tournament. However, Long expressed her sadness over attending the last high school game of her grown-up son.

Wearing mini denim shorts, a black t-shirt and a black baseball cap with lightning on it, Nia posed next to her son and his friends, who were all donning the same uniform with white pants, black baseball jersey, and caps.

“Today was bittersweet. Last high school baseball tournament comes to an end,” the “Boyz N’ the Hood” actress captioned the photo.

Fans took over her comment section to gush about Nia’s support for her son.

“Your relationship with your sons is so special! They are truly blessed to have you. Continued blessings,” wrote one fan, and another added “There is definitely something special about a mother being in the stands watching her son play ball. It doesn't matter how old they are; they still look in the stands to see if we saw "THE PLAY.”

A SINGLE MOM

Massai is the oldest son of Nia with former partner Massai Dorsey. The 47-year-old actress considered herself a single mom for a long time because even though Dorsey was still involved in their son’s life after their split, the daily decision-making was entirely on her shoulders.

That is until she met her long-time fiancé, former pro basketball player Ime Udoka, in 2010.

In 2011, the couple welcomed son Kez, and by 2015 they were already engaged. However, their wedding is still in the planning, and there’s no a date set for it.

Long has described herself as a part-time single mom since Udoka’s arrival in her life. Despite their commitment to each other, work keeps them apart most of the time, as Udoka serves as assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

MASSAI’S INTRODUCTION IN HOLLYWOOD

At 17, Massai already had a taste of the spotlight, as he starred alongside his mother in the Tyler Perry’s film “The Single Moms Club.” He was 12 when the opportunity presented, and after some encouragement from Nia, Massai decided to send in his audition tape for the role.

“He earned it. It was really important for me that he earned it,” Long told Mom.me. And continued:

“I think it's especially important for young kids to see how much power they can have in their own lives by doing the work to earn something. And just because I'm an actress and I'm his mom, this wasn't handed to him.”

Massai played the role of Long’s son in the movie, and while he admitted the job was hard, having his mom around made it more fun and less overwhelming for the boy.

Nia also revealed that Massai decided to try his luck in front of the screen, but she wasn’t going to impose anything to the boy about staying in the industry forever. She said:

“I think it's really super-important to expose your kids to all things positive and let them decide where their passions lie. The more you can expose your children to, the more options they have. And you give them the room to discover their passions, and hopefully, they manifest into something wonderful.”

Massai seems to have decided to stay away from the spotlight, for now, focusing on baseball and school for the time being.