[El Scorcho]

Haters might want to look away now...

One Extraordinary Day

Feb. 10, 2007
By Adam Lucas

Michael Jordan is in the kitchen making coffee.

Where else, other than Jordan's house, do they say those words?

Saturday, that's exactly what the man who came to Chapel Hill as a lanky basketball player and exploded into a worldwide brand was doing. This is to be considered normal at Carolina. You walk into the basketball office a couple of hours before the game, and there's an all-time great taking cream and sugar.

Can this be considered normal? On this day, in this place, at this time, it was.

Days like this don't happen anywhere else. You know that, right?

It takes a really remarkable day to be extraordinary in Chapel Hill. This is a place where NBA All-Stars roam the halls in the summer and players from one of the nation's best college teams can often be found playing ping-pong in the basement.

But Saturday was extraordinary.

It started with the dedication of the newly-named Bill Guthridge Locker Room, as the Tar Heel locker room was renamed for one of the most dedicated Tar Heels ever. The ceremony was held in the tiny hallway outside the locker room, with a podium wedged against the door and attendees standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

Roy Williams likes to bring his team in tight before they take the floor in a big road game, so they can feel the energy and the closeness. It was the same way for the dedication. There was the entire living roster of the 1957 title team on that side of the podium. Here was the 1982 team on this side. It was like walking through a Carolina Basketball Encyclopedia.

"It's a great thrill for me to pull up in the parking lot and see the Dean Smith Center," Roy Williams told the small crowd. "And it will be a great thrill for me to walk into this locker room and see the Bill Guthridge Locker Room."

Guthridge is best-known by some Carolina fans for his calm sideline demeanor, crunching ice while directing the Tar Heels to two Final Fours in three years as a head coach. Few outside the locker room ever got to see the passion that burned behind that façade.

He started out with his trademark dry wit, saying, "I have to pinch myself. Usually this only happens to people when they're dead. So I wanted to make sure I was OK."

Then the tears came. As he tried to thank his family, the tears came, and they wouldn't stop.

But it wasn't uncomfortable. Everyone pressed together in that small space knew how much he'd given to Carolina, how much his time in Chapel Hill had meant to him. In a bigger setting, it probably would have been cause for some applause to pick him up. In this environment, though, it was OK to soak in the feelings.

Eventually, he recovered. "You know, I could beat anybody running the golf course," Guthridge said, "except for Michael Jordan. He wouldn't lose."

That's when you heard a familiar deep chuckle. And standing right next to you was Michael Jordan.

Do I lose professionalism points by telling you that it made my stomach flip?

Jordan, of course, was the picture of calm. "I couldn't lose," he said. "I would've had to run again."

So do you see why highlights won't work for this day? It was about relationships and hugs and the ties that bind.

The '82 team is a bunch of rock stars. Really, they are. They have a handful of members who need just one name--Jordan and Perkins and Worthy and Coach Smith. In most places, they would be the show. The beauty of Saturday was that they were as enthralled by the 1957 team as everyone else was by the '82 squad.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to see the guys from my class," Perkins said. "But I also wanted to see the history that came before me. Those '57 guys, they are so close. And it's great to see that."

The 37-point win over Wake Forest was perhaps the most anticlimactic ACC basketball game in conference history. This story is supposed to be about the game. Do you mind if we just skip that part?

For the first time ever, no one left their seats at halftime. And when the '57 and '82 teams took the floor together, flashbulbs popped like the first pitch of the World Series.

They were saluted with videos put together by Jones Angell, Ken Cleary and Justin Burnett. Maybe you were part of the crowd of 21,750 that watched the videos along with the players. But if you took just a moment to take your eyes off the screen and watch the players, you saw something that would make you shiver:

Several of the 1957 players were crying. They played in an era with no television, no internet, and only the barest of radio. And now, 50 years later, they were being greeted with a roar from over 20,000 people who still appreciated what they had done.

Will anyone remember what you've done today 50 years from now? And if so, can you imagine how good it would feel?

And then, the '82 introductions. Perkins, Worthy, Jordan and Smith on the end of the line. This was not just a moment for Carolina basketball--it was a moment for the entire basketball world. And when you looked over at the tiny Wake Forest rooting section behind their bench, you couldn't help but notice that almost every single one of them had out their cameras or cell phones, snapping photos so they could prove they were there, too, on a very memorable day. It's impressive, sure, when you're loved by your own. It's even more impressive when you're respected by your foes.

Jordan threw his left arm around Smith and planted a kiss on the top of his head as the head coach--he'll always be the head coach, even if Roy Williams officially bears the title now--was introduced. It was a spine-tingler. The greatest basketball player of all time and the regal coach who often kept his emotions hidden, for one brief second open for the entire world to see.

We hear and read about the Carolina basketball family. In that moment, Jordan and Smith cracked the door for all of us to actually see it.

"Sometimes, on a day-to-day basis, we get so wrapped up in the next practice that we don't take time to look at the rafters at the jerseys or banners and think about the history here," Wes Miller said. "We've got it around us with pictures and banners. But to actually have the people who are part of that history come back, and to see them so involved with the program, it shows how special Carolina basketball really is."

Tonight, Miller and the rest of his teammates will join the '57 and '82 players at a banquet where they'll get another taste of the history they are living. The current Tar Heels were in the locker room as the halftime ceremony ended. They didn't see the '57 and '82 teams embrace. One-by-one, they shook each other's hands--Rosenbluth and Black, Brennan and Worthy, Jordan and Kearns.

They've gone their own way and made their own reputations and lived separate lives. But in that moment, on the Smith Center floor, they greeted each other like brothers.

Like, yes, a family.

"It puts it into perspective," Bobby Frasor said. "It shows you how big North Carolina basketball is. It makes you so happy you're a part of it.

"We're lucky. We don't always think about it, but we're very lucky."

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[El Scorcho]

And from later on that night...

One Extraordinary Night

Carolina's 1957 and 1982 teams gathered with the 2007 Tar Heels Saturday night.

Feb. 10, 2007
By Adam Lucas

There is one room in the United States where Michael Jordan walks to the podium in front of a capacity audience and does not get a standing ovation. OK, maybe one room in the entire world where Michael Jordan walks to the podium in the front of a capacity audience and does not get a standing ovation.

Saturday night, that room was inside the Carolina Club on the UNC campus. Jordan was the last of four speakers to address a banquet honoring the 1957 and 1982 teams. And as he made his way to the front of the room, something remarkable happened--everyone clapped...while staying in their seats.

That's remarkable to you and to me. If Jordan walks to a podium in front of us, we stand on the chair and wave our hands above our heads and generally act like Julia Roberts in the polo scene from "Pretty Woman" (Woo woo woo!).

But in front of the '57 and '82 teams, Jordan is something he is nowhere else in the world--he is among peers. To some of them, he is still Mike Jordan. To all of them, he's simply family.

His presence was important because he was a key member of Dean Smith's first national championship. But as was mentioned several times during the night, and although history tends to obscure it, he was not the key member.

"I heard through the grapevine that Michael didn't want to speak tonight," said Jimmy Black, the point guard and co-captain from 1982 who was the first member of that team to address the gathering. "But Michael, with all you have accomplished, you can't step on any toes. I'm happy and proud to call you a teammate."

"This is our family," Roy Williams said as he opened the evening. "And we always want our family to feel good about coming back."

On nights like tonight, they wouldn't have any choice. Fifty years of Tar Heel history was in the room, from the full living roster of the '57 squad to the '82 team to the current team. Williams usually gives his current players one simple instruction at reunion events: "Don't try to be cool." It means he doesn't want them to send text messages during the speeches, doesn't want them to check their watches, and doesn't want them to guess how much longer the speaker will be at the podium.

Pete Brennan, the versatile forward from the '57 team, was the night's first speaker and he addressed the current Tar Heels directly.

"Guys, I want you to listen to this," he said. "In 1957, we all realized Lennie Rosenbluth was the best shooter we had. So the rest of us knew we had to become a better rebounder, or a better defensive player, or a better passer. We had to struggle with that through our sophomore years.

"And when we understood that and became a team during our junior years, that's when we won a national title."

That title is familiar to many Carolina fans but not always easily accessible to the current team. This is a generation that considers the '91 Bulls-Lakers NBA Finals to be a historic game. So it was instructive to watch Danny Green raise an eyebrow at Marcus Ginyard as the details of the '57 squad's back-to-back triple overtime wins in the Final Four were recounted.

"Being from the West Coast, I think I'm missing a part of that whole Carolina tradition," freshman Alex Stepheson said. "I wasn't able to live in that moment and in that time. So I'm excited about getting a taste of everything."

The day's earlier events included the unveiling of a new banner honoring the perfect 32-0 record of the '57 team and head coach Frank McGuire. To some fans, it might have been simply another banner. But to the '57 Tar Heels, it was recognition they had been seeking for decades. Not for themselves, but for McGuire.

"Frank McGuire meant everything to us," said the night's second speaker, '57 reserve Bob Young. "Getting him the recognition he deserved was the highlight of the day."

It was a testament to the events of the evening that everyone could have probably identified a unique highlight. One of them came next, as the '82 team was saluted with a special '82-centric version of the now traditional "One Shining Moment" video. February 10 will be remembered for many different things in Chapel Hill. But it will be hard to forget the opportunity to watch Jordan, Worthy, and Perkins watching much younger versions of themselves while the current Tar Heels bobbed their heads to the song every player hopes to watch from the NCAA podium after accepting a championship trophy.

"Hey," Black said when he took the microphone, "I can probably make my mile time after watching that video."

Ever intent on sharing the credit, Black also called co-captains Chris Brust and Jeb Barlow to the podium. Barlow's final words perfectly captured the spirit of the night.

"I didn't play a single minute in the championship game," he said. "That was my last college game. And in the locker room after the game, Coach Smith came to my locker while my dad was sitting there and apologized for not getting me into the game.

"That is Carolina basketball and that is Dean Smith."

Jordan's speech was the shortest of the night, but its brevity made it crackle. Imagine that you're a 2007 Tar Heel. You're one of the five best teams in the country. But you're also very, very young.

And then the world's greatest basketball player stands at the front of the room, looks at each of you, and says the following:

"The memories I have with the '82 team can never be replaced. It's like no other team I played with.

"For the 2007 guys, this is the only time you will ever be on a team like this. The things you laugh about, the things you joke about, are the same things you'll talk about when you get together 25 or 50 years from now. That's what this program means.

"This will never be replaced in my memory. And this will always be home for me."

At exactly that moment, there was not a single college basketball player in the entire United States who wouldn't have wanted to be a Tar Heel. Only a select few get the opportunity. And they were all beaming.

"I love Carolina basketball," Williams told the room. "And that means I love the people in this room. That's why every single day I make sure I do every bit of work that I possibly can to make sure I don't cheat you."

Before the group disbanded, they made time for photos. One shot brought together all three teams. Wright and Perkins, Rosenbluth and Jordan, Worthy and Hansbrough.

The photo was exactly what it looked like:

A family portrait.

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