(Reuters)
ATLANTA — Finally, when it was time for Louisville to stand up to Wichita State once and for all, stand up with championship defense, Kevin Ware stood up, got up from his seat on the bench against doctor’s orders, stood up on that broken leg that he refuses to let break his heart or shatter his One Shining Moment dreams.
“This,” Kevin Ware told his Louisville teammates, “is what’s gonna make us win this game — defense — so we gotta get after it. It’s not offense that got us to this point.”
Wichita State was playing angry, and Ware was getting plenty angry watching the Shockers build a lead that swelled to 12 points with 13:36 remaining.
“I was mad at these guys all game,” Ware said.
In the Cardinals’ locker room, engulfed by bright lights and tape recorders after Louisville’s 72-68 comeback victory, I asked Ware how he managed to get on the elevated court.
“I hopped actually,” Ware said. “And Fred [Hina, head trainer] kinda got mad that I even was up there, ’cause he was like, ‘You don’t want be a distraction and those things,’ but got back up there and got back down before anybody even noticed.”
Peyton Siva thought Ware was subbing for him for a second.
“We know how much it would mean for him to be out there,” Siva said.
Wichita State didn’t care that Ware might be a source of inspiration who touched the likes of Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey and captured the Top Ten imagination of David Letterman. The Shockers didn’t feel sorry he could not run and jump alongside his teammates and brothers even as most of America was rooting hard that his teammates and brothers would be running and jumping for him, all the way to tomorrow night against Michigan.
“I was fairly concerned, “ Ware said, “but at the same time, I just kinda felt like they’ll eventually realize that it’s either win or go home, and hopefully it wasn’t too late before they did.”
It never is too late for Louisville. Ask Syracuse, which led by 13 at halftime of the Big East final only to lose to the Cardinals by 17.
“We always try to do the spectacular,” Ware said, and smiled.
The spectacular started with Tim Henderson, a junior walk-on forced to play unlikely minutes, canning a pair of 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 47-41.
It continued with Cool Hand Luke Hancock hitting an uncontested left wing trey and a driving layup in the final two desperate minutes and one of two free throws with 8.8 seconds left. Ware could not bear to watch, his head buried beneath the top of his jersey.
“I was just saying a prayer for Luke,” Ware said. “When I went down with my injury, the first person that was by my side was Luke.”
Hancock missed the second freebie off the back rim, but forced a jump ball with Ron Baker.
Louisville ball, 6.3 seconds left, with the Cardinals leading 71-68.
“He got the jump ball call and I kinda feel like that’s when God really heard me,” Ware said.
Russ Smith sank a free throw, and it was over.
Ware heard a voice he recognized, the voice of his father, Kevin Ware Sr., and asked a nearby cop to let the man in the Yankees cap stop by for a long, sweet, warm embrace. His father had flown out of LaGuardia Airport, connected in Chicago, and managed to get to the game after it started.
“Dad he was telling me he was proud of me, and all this is crazy, but at the same time, we go through things in life that God just wants us to go through so, it is what it is,” Ware said.
Someone asked Ware, who left The Bronx when he was in seventh grade, what that hug meant to him.
“It was everything, honestly,” he said. “I haven’t seen my dad in a really long time. “
Kevin Ware Sr. said: “He’s my hero. He’s my little man.”
His little man has been hugged in a way by so many, from the tribute jerseys and warm-ups that bear his No. 5, to the outpouring of affection for his courage and grace under fire through it all.
“The more support I get the happier I am.,” Ware said. “In front of all these cameras, I just want to say, ‘Thank you’ to everybody.”
When the game ended, this is what Kevin Ware heard from his teammates:
“This is for you. We got you.”
And this is what Kevin Ware told them:
“I’m proud of y’all.”