ARLINGTON, Texas — There were tears in the eyes of Carmen Velasquez in the moments after UConn 60, Kentucky 54, in the moments after the boy she raised without a husband was the best player on the court, was Kemba Walker three years later.
She was wearing a No. 13 Napier jersey as she held a finger signaling No. 1 up at her son, who was standing on the podium with his Huskies teammates and coach Kevin Ollie, and of course Jim Calhoun was standing off to the side, beaming like a proud father, because Ollie was his guy, his guy who has carried on the championship tradition.
“It’s a special moment,” Velasquez was saying now, after Ollie and the Huskies gazed up in awe as “One Shining Moment” played on the scoreboard. “I mean, they doubted these kids from Day One. They didn’t think they would be in this spot. They did it, they proved everybody wrong.”
She was asked what she thought about her son, and she said: “What I think about him every day. Unbelievable. He never gives up, he works hard. You know, he has a team here that’s willing to fight with him, not just him by himself.”
Yes UCann.
Napier wasn’t necessarily a one-man show. But he was some show. All he did was impose his will on the biggest night of his life, orchestrate the game, make his teammates better.
Before he cut down the net, and stood atop the ladder and waved the net to Husky Nation with a smile you could have stretched to Storrs, Conn., Ollie had embraced his wife, Stephanie, and 13-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, and sobbed tears of joy on Stephanie’s shoulder. Then he kissed her on the cheek. “I think I’ll keep him,” she said, laughing.
Asked if they said anything to each other, she said: “Yeah, we just told each other that ‘I love you,’ and he loves me, and we got some banana pudding and German chocolate cake waiting for us at home.” And she laughed again.
Assistant coach Karl Hobbs gave the championship trophy to Ollie’s wife to hold. Ray Allen was on the court being interviewed, as was Rip Hamilton.
“I need to hold that trophy again!” Hamilton said excitedly, and he did.
Napier’s mother had gone over to hug Calhoun, who had recruited her boy out of the mean streets of Roxbury, Mass.
“He’s pretty good,” Calhoun said. “He’s a great basketball player, and he proved it tonight.”
Napier did it all, even helping out under the boards (six rebounds) against the new Fab Five monsters. He raged at Ryan Boatright when he felt it was needed. He calmed his team. He finished with 22 points and three assists and three steals and four uncharacteristic turnovers in 39 magical, iron-willed minutes.
Three times Kentucky, down 15 in the first half, looking like Liston in the first Clay fight, missing 11-of-24 free throws, getting outrebounded by an outfit that seemed to want the game more, pulled to within one point in the white-knuckler second half. But Napier hit a long 3 to make it 51-47 and fed Daniels for the layin that made it 58-52, and this Fab Five wasn’t one-and-done anymore, just done. UConn had too much quickness, too much defense, too much heart — Boatright ignoring a sprained ankle over the last nine minutes — too much Napier.
“Life is about climbing a hill, and that’s difficult,” Calhoun said. “But maintaining greatness, eliteness, as we have, that’s really a sonofagun.”
In the interview room, Ollie talked about his mother’s courage battling cancer, his wife’s care of his mother, who made the trip to watch her son become a champion. Except she knew that already. And he expressed his gratitude to Calhoun.
“When the seconds were ticking off the clock, I was looking at Coach,” Ollie said. “My thought is this: He paved the way. He’s my second father. If he didn’t believe in me, I don’t think I would have this job. I really believe that.”
Walker, Charlotte Bobcat, was in the house to watch his protégé.
“He impacted the game,” John Calipari said. “He’s impacted every game he’s played. He has that swagger about him.”
That swagger was there for all to see when Napier, who promised his teammates early in the season they would be champions, said to the CBS cameras: “Honestly, I want to get everyone’s attention. Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the Hungry Huskies. This is what happens when you ban us.”
Amazing also happens. Most kids would kill for “One Shining Moment.” Shabazz Napier gets two. No one deserves them more.