Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Lucas: A Banner Day
October 13, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Dropping the 2017 championship banner capped a perfect Chapel Hill day.
By Adam Lucas
What a day.
What a fantastic, emotional, Carolina blue day.
I have never been lucky enough to be present for a Franklin Street storming. But I have the sneaking suspicion that Friday was the daylong equivalent of a very enjoyable Franklin party.
Memes were sent. Schadenfreude was relished. Banners were dropped.
It started Friday morning and lasted throughout the day. Whoever said Friday the 13th had bad mojo has clearly never met Friday, October 13, 2017. If we ever have to live one single day over and over again, can it be this one? Luke Maye's shot will always go in, and Roy Williams will always be proven loudly and emphatically right, and seven national championship banners will always look a little more filling than six.
By the time the clock hit 7:30 for Late Night with Roy, it felt very much like one of those great March NCAA Tournament days—except this time you had absolutely none of the stress of whether the Tar Heels would win the game, because they had already won it.
Late Night with Roy Williams is about beginning the next season. But this year's event was also about soaking in last season one more time. Players went through the usual flash-bang intros, with the final Tar Heel being senior Theo Pinson. The Greensboro native emerged from the tunnel into the spotlight in front of a capacity crowd, but then turned back after appearing to forget something.
He emerged again…with the national championship trophy, which then proceeded to sit at the scorer's table for the rest of the evening, because sometimes you just need to keep it close by.
There were goosebumps. Of course there were. Kenny Smith hosted the evening. His youngest son, Malloy, sat in the Smith Center stands and was looking up at the rafters during a break in the event.
"There's Justin Jackson!" he exclaimed, spotting the latest addition to the honored laundry. His eyes followed the names and numbers until he saw another familiar one.
"Hey!" the nine-year old shouted. "Smith!"
If you've ever wondered why those banners mean so much to so many people, watch a son visibly realize his father used to be pretty cool—and there is tangible proof of that extreme coolness in one of the world's great sporting arenas.
Yes, Malloy, your dad's up there. Some of us used to dream of being just like him, of mastering that lightning-quick between the legs dribble or that rapid-fire jump shot.
Most of the fans in attendance on Friday night probably don't even know Kenny Smith that way anymore, don't recall those sprints down the court punctuated with a two-hand reverse slam dunk. But they knew it raised the hair on their arms when he announced Williams as, "OUR head coach," and when he paused at one moment and told the Tar Heel head coach, "I want to tell you something that I know you will understand and that will matter to you. Coach Smith would be very proud of you."
The event could have ended right there and the huge crowd would have gone home happy. But it didn't, because then we would have missed most of the 2016-17 team standing at midcourt, arms around each other, watching their championship banner join the Smith Center rafters. We would have missed Pinson finding Brandon Huffman with a slick over the head pass during the scrimmage, Huffman ramming home a dunk, and then Hubert Davis leaping off the bench—even during a meaningless scrimmage—to point to the passer, just the way he'd been taught in this building 25 years ago, and just the way Huffman and every future Tar Heel freshman will be taught as long as this coaching staff is still holding the clipboard.
Yes, but…
But nothing. There is no but. Not anymore. That's the beauty of Friday's events. Look it up, it happened. Carolina won the 2017 national championship (and 2009, and 2005, and 1993, and 1982, and 1957, and even 1924, bless their little White Phantom hearts, because today is a day where you count every single detail that infuriates all those sad little individuals elsewhere). Luke Maye hit the shot. Kennedy Meeks got the rebound. Joel Berry was Joel Berry. It happened, we all got to live it, and if you need a reminder, just check the rafters.
We're finally back to just playing the games again. Oh, there will be mumbling, just as sure as some unfortunate souls still cling to "The ball hit the scoreboard" or "T.A. was in." Some people can't let go, because it's too important to them, which is a nice little compliment if you think about it. They'll never get past this, and it will always be Oct. 12 to them.
But it's Oct. 13. There are seven national championship banners hanging in the Smith Center, a tribute that will last forever to the players and coaches who earned them.
Looking up there on the way out of the building Friday night, it was impressive. Think about what Williams has done since he came back to Chapel Hill, doubling the program's NCAA championships in a scant 14 seasons.
It's downright crowded up there now, shoulder to shoulder in the most coveted space in the building. This isn't normal, the charmed basketball life that we're living right now. It will make you greedy if you aren't careful.
Because after watching the banner drop, and after watching the kind of bond the 2017 team had when they were brought back together, and seeing the way fans packed the building and lit up the arena with their phones to take videos of the unveiling to remember that on this historic night, they were there and here is their proof, there was only one possible thought:
Let's get another one.
Adam Lucas is the co-author of Redemption, the official book on the 2017 Carolina national championship. Order a signed copy here.
What a day.
What a fantastic, emotional, Carolina blue day.
I have never been lucky enough to be present for a Franklin Street storming. But I have the sneaking suspicion that Friday was the daylong equivalent of a very enjoyable Franklin party.
Memes were sent. Schadenfreude was relished. Banners were dropped.
It started Friday morning and lasted throughout the day. Whoever said Friday the 13th had bad mojo has clearly never met Friday, October 13, 2017. If we ever have to live one single day over and over again, can it be this one? Luke Maye's shot will always go in, and Roy Williams will always be proven loudly and emphatically right, and seven national championship banners will always look a little more filling than six.
By the time the clock hit 7:30 for Late Night with Roy, it felt very much like one of those great March NCAA Tournament days—except this time you had absolutely none of the stress of whether the Tar Heels would win the game, because they had already won it.
Late Night with Roy Williams is about beginning the next season. But this year's event was also about soaking in last season one more time. Players went through the usual flash-bang intros, with the final Tar Heel being senior Theo Pinson. The Greensboro native emerged from the tunnel into the spotlight in front of a capacity crowd, but then turned back after appearing to forget something.
He emerged again…with the national championship trophy, which then proceeded to sit at the scorer's table for the rest of the evening, because sometimes you just need to keep it close by.
There were goosebumps. Of course there were. Kenny Smith hosted the evening. His youngest son, Malloy, sat in the Smith Center stands and was looking up at the rafters during a break in the event.
"There's Justin Jackson!" he exclaimed, spotting the latest addition to the honored laundry. His eyes followed the names and numbers until he saw another familiar one.
"Hey!" the nine-year old shouted. "Smith!"
If you've ever wondered why those banners mean so much to so many people, watch a son visibly realize his father used to be pretty cool—and there is tangible proof of that extreme coolness in one of the world's great sporting arenas.
Yes, Malloy, your dad's up there. Some of us used to dream of being just like him, of mastering that lightning-quick between the legs dribble or that rapid-fire jump shot.
Most of the fans in attendance on Friday night probably don't even know Kenny Smith that way anymore, don't recall those sprints down the court punctuated with a two-hand reverse slam dunk. But they knew it raised the hair on their arms when he announced Williams as, "OUR head coach," and when he paused at one moment and told the Tar Heel head coach, "I want to tell you something that I know you will understand and that will matter to you. Coach Smith would be very proud of you."
The event could have ended right there and the huge crowd would have gone home happy. But it didn't, because then we would have missed most of the 2016-17 team standing at midcourt, arms around each other, watching their championship banner join the Smith Center rafters. We would have missed Pinson finding Brandon Huffman with a slick over the head pass during the scrimmage, Huffman ramming home a dunk, and then Hubert Davis leaping off the bench—even during a meaningless scrimmage—to point to the passer, just the way he'd been taught in this building 25 years ago, and just the way Huffman and every future Tar Heel freshman will be taught as long as this coaching staff is still holding the clipboard.
Yes, but…
But nothing. There is no but. Not anymore. That's the beauty of Friday's events. Look it up, it happened. Carolina won the 2017 national championship (and 2009, and 2005, and 1993, and 1982, and 1957, and even 1924, bless their little White Phantom hearts, because today is a day where you count every single detail that infuriates all those sad little individuals elsewhere). Luke Maye hit the shot. Kennedy Meeks got the rebound. Joel Berry was Joel Berry. It happened, we all got to live it, and if you need a reminder, just check the rafters.
We're finally back to just playing the games again. Oh, there will be mumbling, just as sure as some unfortunate souls still cling to "The ball hit the scoreboard" or "T.A. was in." Some people can't let go, because it's too important to them, which is a nice little compliment if you think about it. They'll never get past this, and it will always be Oct. 12 to them.
But it's Oct. 13. There are seven national championship banners hanging in the Smith Center, a tribute that will last forever to the players and coaches who earned them.
Looking up there on the way out of the building Friday night, it was impressive. Think about what Williams has done since he came back to Chapel Hill, doubling the program's NCAA championships in a scant 14 seasons.
It's downright crowded up there now, shoulder to shoulder in the most coveted space in the building. This isn't normal, the charmed basketball life that we're living right now. It will make you greedy if you aren't careful.
Because after watching the banner drop, and after watching the kind of bond the 2017 team had when they were brought back together, and seeing the way fans packed the building and lit up the arena with their phones to take videos of the unveiling to remember that on this historic night, they were there and here is their proof, there was only one possible thought:
Let's get another one.
Adam Lucas is the co-author of Redemption, the official book on the 2017 Carolina national championship. Order a signed copy here.
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