University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: They'll Be Back
April 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
April 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
They'll be back, you know.
Not next season. At least not wearing the Carolina blue argyles. But Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Marvin Williams--all three of whom announced their intentions to enter the NBA Draft on Friday afternoon--will be back in Chapel Hill sooner than you think.
Sooner than they think, too. Maybe even sooner than Roy Williams thinks, although he's seen this before and knows how it works. Knows how millions of dollars for Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison can't stop them from wanting to spend their last free Saturday afternoon before the NBA season begins hanging out with their old coach at a football game. Knows how Rasheed Wallace couldn't resist stopping by Hartford, Connecticut--and you've got to make an effort to stop by Hartford--to see his Tar Heels this season. Knows how if you're looking for Antawn Jamison on most any summer day, you can usually find him on the Smith Center court in the late afternoon, schooling the latest group of young Tar Heels on how to play the game of basketball. And, more importantly, how not to play the game of basketball.
It was on one of those days last summer that Jamison was frank with the swaggering current bunch of Tar Heels. They'd returned the program to the NCAA Tournament, were already getting preseason attention and would eventually earn a number-one preseason ranking from Sports Illustrated. But Jamison knew better. "You haven't accomplished anything yet," he told them.
Now they have. When May, Felton, and Williams sat on the Smith Center court to announce their intentions, they sat beneath a bevy of blue and white banners signifying some of the greatest teams in Carolina history. Only three of those banners read "NCAA Champions."
There will soon be a fourth. For that reason, Friday--as Roy Williams repeatedly said--was a happy day. As Carolina fans, we've grown used to these press conferences, grown used to watching our favorites leave us. Don't be ashamed to admit that it hurts. We love them, cheer for them, and there's always the faint hope that they love us too, that somehow we make a difference. That's not any less true today than it was yesterday. It's just that when they leave the opportunity on the table to play 10 or 15 more games at the Smith Center (or in Williams's case, 30 or 40), it stings a little.
But it stings a lot less because there's that banner going into production soon. Vince Carter, Joe Forte, Jerry Stackhouse, J.R. Reid, even Wallace and Jamison, all left with something left undone. Most had been to at least one Final Four, but they hadn't won it.
The current trio--go ahead and toss in Rashad McCants to make it a quartet--has won it. So if Marvin Williams (who remains so grounded that after making an announcement that will earn him millions, his next move was to go upstairs and call a buddy in Bremerton who works for a talk radio station--Williams had promised him the first interview and made good on his pledge) wants to earn millions of dollars and enable his mother to choose whether she wants to continue riding a ferry two hours roundtrip every day to work, that's what he should do. That's what you would do if it was your mother. That's what I would do if it was my mother.
That's what Raymond Felton will do for his parents. His mother and father have been a fixture at Carolina games over the past three years, racking up thousands of miles on their car just to watch their son play. Leave Latta, make the 8-hour drive to Tallahassee, watch the game, and drive back in time for work the next morning? They've done it. And if he wants to enable them to fly instead of drive to their son's next meaningful basketball game, he should do it. That's what you would do if it was your parents. That's what I would do if it was my parents.
Sean May is in a different situation. Finances didn't dictate his move. Intelligence did. There will be those who believe he misled them, that he knowingly said he'd be back while secretly planning to ditch Chapel Hill. That wasn't the case. Even in private, up until the last handful of weeks he was certain he'd return for his senior year. He wanted to make a senior speech. Wanted to pose for the cover of the media guide. Wanted to do all the things Carolina seniors are supposed to do. That he dominated the last six weeks of the season like few players in recent NCAA history have dominated doesn't make him a bad person or a liar. It just makes him very fortunate.
It wasn't that long ago that the only offseason announcements coming out of the Smith Center were transfers, those ugly little two-line press releases that are usually made under cover of darkness, like the Colts packing up and leaving Baltimore for Indianapolis. This was different. This was fans lining up outside the building to cheer their heroes one last time. This was family members sitting in the wings with proud smiles. This was a mother pausing outside the basketball office after the press conference to wipe her eyes, unsure whether her tears were happy or sad. That's how far the program has come in a few short years.
It was not goodbye. Not once they get away from Chapel Hill for a few months and realize how much they miss it. After that third cross-country flight it's possible classes won't look that bad, possible they'll wish for a sandwich at Sutton's rather than another steak on the run.
We already know they've given us memories, given us that 2005 championship t-shirt that we've already worn five times, the already well-worn VHS tape of the win over Illinois.
In the weeks and months and maybe even years to come, they'll come to understand the memories they made here--and yes, maybe even some memories we gave them. They'll come back, knocking tentatively on the basketball office door, looking for the way they remember it. They'll sit behind the scorer's table at the Smith Center, yelling at referees and cheering on their fellow Tar Heels. The wins and losses have changed over their careers. But more importantly, so has the atmosphere around the program, and seeing alums in the hallways of the Smith Center is now second nature. Again. And that's how it's supposed to be, and that's how you can be sure May, Felton, and Williams won't be strangers.
So the NBA just got a whole lot more interesting to a whole lot of Carolina fans. We'll go back to checking boxscores every morning to see how our favorites did. We'll say goodbye for now and good luck.
And we'll see you soon.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. His book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about the book, click here.
