Lucas: This Place

By Adam Lucas

CHARLOTTE—One gorgeous spring night in 2017, Joel Berry and Theo Pinson were sitting at dinner on Franklin Street with close friend John Bumgarner, a rising senior manager on Carolina's basketball team. The Tar Heels were fresh off winning the national championship, both Berry and Pinson had submitted their names for NBA Draft consideration, and life was good.

One by one, Tar Heel fans approached the table to thank the duo for the national championship, or take a selfie, or relay their own story of watching the championship game.

During a rare quiet moment at the table, Berry looked around. "I don't think I can leave this place," he told the group. "Look at this. I love everything about this place. If I could spend one more year here, I would be stupid to leave."

And so they came back. Not to the basketball team, but to college. Well, that's not quite right, either. They came back to the University of North Carolina, because they couldn't imagine their lives without it, because they didn't want to miss one…single…moment. They already knew what most of us don't figure out until we're sitting in an office somewhere wondering where those sunny days in The Pit have gone: these may be some of the very best days of their lives.

Joel Berry II and Theo Pinson have been completely devoted to Carolina basketball during some of the toughest years to be completely devoted to Carolina basketball. And they did the virtually impossible—they made such a difficult time period fun. Outside the building maybe people were being critical or taking cheap shots, but every day in the Smith Center was a joy. Who might Joel bark at today? How might Theo get his next assist? What's that laughter in the locker room?

And their teammates benefited, on and off the court. Do you ever wonder what it was like to be a teammate of two of the best teammates in the Roy Williams era? It was like this:

The duo invited the entire team to their off-campus apartment to watch the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight in August of 2017. They went to the store to get a few items for the fight, and while they were there, Pinson decided their 50-inch television simply wasn't good enough. And that's how the Tar Heels watched the fight on a 300-inch projection screen, because Pinson wanted his team to have an unforgettable night.

One day last school year, Bumgarner returned home to find that Pinson and Berry had purchased new Nerf guns. They ambushed him and the battle spilled into the parking lot, just three college kids acting exactly like college kids. Occasionally, a car would pass by and interrupt the skirmish.

"Car!" they'd shout, and they'd politely step to the side and let the driver pass. When the road was clear, they'd start firing again.

The young ones won't remember this, but there was a time when people thought Carolina basketball was too corporate. There hasn't been one day that Pinson and Berry were on campus that Tar Heel basketball seemed like a business.

"My experience in college was that once you get out of college, you are out in the real working world," said Pinson's father, better known to the rest of us as Big Theo. "I have told both of them since day one that college is a part of your life you want to enjoy. Don't just go through the motions of being in college. Savor every moment."

The moments were incredible. A national championship. Two Final Fours. An ACC tournament championship. You mostly know about the fun side of Theo Pinson and Joel Berry. What you might not know is that they are also complete basketball junkies—maybe even Pinson more than Berry. Pinson watched the complete broadcast of Texas Southern against Southern for no reason other than he just wanted to see a game. He is perhaps the worst person in Chapel Hill with whom to watch a movie on television. During a commercial break in the movie, he'll flip to a game…and then never change the channel back to the movie.

"There have been times we go back to the room after we play in a game," Berry says. "And I'll be laying on my bed, because I'm exhausted and I just need to rest. And from the other room, I'll hear a referee's whistle, and Theo is in there watching a replay of the game that we just played in, because he wants to see what he can learn from it."

Coach Theo. It could happen, folks.

And between all of that basketball, there was—college. Two kids having fun at college. Maybe that's why we related so perfectly to them, because they seemed to enjoy it just the way we did. They were vastly more talented, of course, but Berry and Pinson always gave you the impression that if they were in the stands instead of on the court, they'd be painting their faces and screaming, "Priceless gem!" during the alma mater and racing to Franklin Street after the latest big win, where they'd be the ones you'd hug even if you didn't know them.

"These guys have been involved in some of the greatest moments I've ever had," Roy Williams said of Pinson and Berry.

Us too, Coach. Us too. Williams got to be in the locker room with them and travel with them and go to practice with them every day. But we got to be there, too, whether you were watching in the stands with the best friends you'll ever have or on television with your dad or on the phone with your sister. At a time when everyone wanted to criticize North Carolina, they made it so incredibly easy to be proud to be a Tar Heel.

Every year, we think we can't get this lucky again. We will never get another Jackie, Jawad and Melvin. No one can be as special as Tyler and Danny and Marcus and Bobby. Marcus and Brice are irreplaceable.

And now, Joel and Theo. Sunday night closed a chapter that is likely to be one of the most important things they will ever do in their lives. In some way, it will impact almost every day they have in front of them. Sometimes, you wonder if departing players realize what's just happened. Pinson and Berry, though—they've known it, every single moment.

Pinson was asked how he wants to be remembered. "That I was a champ," he said. How could we remember him any other way?

When he checked out of the game, he walked the entire length of the bench, wrapping each coach, player and staff member in a hug. At the end of the bench was Bumgarner, who was in tears, and soon Pinson was, too.

A couple weeks ago, Big Theo pondered this moment, which he knew would happen eventually, one way or the other.

"It will come to an end one day," he said of his son's time at Carolina, but also finding a way to speak for every single one of the rest of us. "When that happens, I won't have to look back and feel bad that it's over. Because I enjoyed the heck out of it every day that it was happening."

Players Mentioned

Joel Berry II

Theo Pinson

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