University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Old Meets New
December 31, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Rashad McCants don't belong in the rafters.
Sorry, but they don't.
The rafters are for old people. When I look at the rafters, it makes me reminisce. When I look at May, Felton, and McCants, it makes me want to watch them play.
They are players, not banners.
The rafters are for people who show up in black-and-white highlight footage. May, Felton, McCants are fully colorized--May pulling down every rebound and scoring every basket during the final month of his career, Felton throwing that laser-guided bounce pass to David Noel against Michigan State, McCants stepping out a couple feet behind the 3-point line and burying another picture-perfect jumper.
If they are hanging above the court--and now they are, as they were officially honored at halftime of the Dayton game--rather than running up and down on it, that means I'm getting old. And you're getting old.
Which doesn't especially bother me, except that it also means my son is getting old. My wife marks stages of her pregnancy with him by games during the 2004-05 season. She felt him move in Maui, right about the time Carolina was dominating BYU. First started feeling uncomfortable? Around the Maryland game in Chapel Hill. The doctor told her he was almost ready to induce during the ACC Tournament in Washington. Fortunately, Dr. John Thorp is a major Carolina fan, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to him to schedule the induction for Tuesday, March 15, giving a 3-day buffer before the Tar Heels opened NCAA Tournament play in Charlotte.
Asher and my daughter McKay watched the Tournament from home that year. Now that the principles from that team are enshrined in the rafters, it means it's not long before McKay starts kindergarten. And it also means there aren't many games left for Asher to bounce up and down in my arms to the opening strains of "Jump Around" over the Smith Center PA system.
I'm not ready for that yet.
McKay, who is three going on 23, went with us to Sunday's game, an 81-51 whitewashing of Dayton. I told her the trio of players she used to watch--OK, maybe she slept through their games more than watched them--would be there.
"They used to play basketball for the Tar Heels," I told her.
"They did?" she said, in the same tone of voice I used to use when my father told me Walter Davis used to play for the Tar Heels.
They did. And they didn't just play. Felton, May, and McCants were honored for tangible exploits on the court. But they had an even bigger role off the hardwood.
Remember, when they walked onto the Carolina basketball landscape, it might as well have been covered with glaciers. Watching them play just one night of pickup basketball in the summer of 2002 was intoxicating. They were good. Not just good. They were extraordinary--just the way a Tar Heel basketball player was supposed to be. It was the first believable sign that maybe Camelot could be rebuilt.
That seemed like a long time ago right around the time Felton came out of the tunnel Sunday afternoon and took a seat on the Carolina bench 45 minutes before game time. His jersey was hanging almost directly over his head, but he didn't want to look.
"This is crazy," he said with an almost awestruck smile on his face. "I'm trying not to look up there. I don't want to get too emotional."
During the game, the trio sat behind the bench, not on it. They're old guys now, and that's where old guys sit. They'll still be frequent visitors in the summer, because some of the best pickup games in America can be found in the Smith Center.
Now, like Phil Ford used to do, they've got the ultimate final word if any trash talk begins.
"Every time I come in here and someone says something crazy to me when we're playing, I'm going to say, `Look up,'" Sean May said with a good-natured smile. "I'm going to let them know they can't talk to me that way."
That sounds like a crotchety old guy, doesn't it?
The players who went out after the 2005 season had such a tremendous role in rebuilding the program that they've cast a very long shadow. Since that night in St. Louis, everything has been compared to them. Last year's team defended like the '05 team. This year's team is talented like the '05 team. How would this team do against the '05 team?
But now that Felton, May, and McCants are in the rafters, it's time to turn the page. Those memories are great, and they'll last forever. Now it's time for some new ones.
This year's team is 12-1 and ranked second in the country. They have turned into defensive demons and are legitimate candidates for conference and national honors. They've gone from frustrating to watch to fun to watch, and there are still three months left to enjoy them. It feels the same way it did in 2005, when the games can't come fast enough and you're always eager to see what they might do once the ball is tipped.
Brandan Wright, who has the chance to one day see his own jersey flutter in the breeze, was asked the inevitable question about what would happen if the '07 team played the '05 squad.
"We'd have to play on a neutral floor," he said. "They had some talented players on that 2005 team. But our youth would take over. Those are old guys."
Thanks for the memories, old guys. Now let's see what the new guys can do.
Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
