Content provided in partnership with

Felton dared to dream big: ok, so I'm a sucker for little guys, but hear me out on this one

Sporting News, The, April 15, 2005 by Dave Kindred

Raymond Felton believes he can go the length of a basketball court in three seconds, using three dribbles, maybe four, and if there is in that thought a touch of exaggeration, he is to be forgiven, for more than once on a night when it mattered most, Raymond Felton did work for North Carolina's national championship basketball team that defied understanding, such as ...

A drive, deep down the left side.

Going up for a shot, he discovers he has no shot.

So, turning in the air, now backing toward the baseline, he drops a pass under the basket, only to see it deflected, and he chases it to a place 25 feet away in time to recover the ball and put up a 3-pointer that begins a Carolina run that builds a 10-point lead and establishes just which team is the better one on this night.

Most Popular Articles in Sports: The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely ...; The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why ...; Which pistol caliber for self defense? Four different people come to four ...; Drag racing - National Hot Rod Association; The world's most popular .22: the Marlin Model 60 just keeps on ticking; More »

Maybe Sean May is the greater player. Maybe Rashad McCants will be a richer pro. But give me Raymond Felton. Give me the little kid who grew up in the state just south of North Carolina and wanted to go north because "everybody dreams of playing for Carolina."

This one, this national championship game, remember it.

Be still my quivering heart.

Five minutes to play.

Tie ballgame, and who'd have thought it?

North Carolina the better team, North Carolina up by 15 early in the second half, now North Carolina with the ball, its little guy with the ball, Raymond Felton at the top of the key, trapped, nowhere to go, the shot clock dying, nothing to do but shoot it now, shoot it over two Illinois defenders, over Deron Williams and Dee Brown, over the damned St. Louis Arch if necessary, and Raymond Felton threw the rock high.

And in. Another 3-pointer, a three-point lead.

Put this game in the history books.

Now, a half-minute to play.

Illinois still there, Illinois alive.

North Carolina up by two.

Illinois with the ball, Illinois with the magic, Illinois once 15 behind, Illinois with all that orange noise coming down, Illinois now with one more 3-pointer to win the thing.

Luther Head with the ball moving from left to right across the lane, Luther Head looking to get the ball to Dee Brown outside the line, Luther Head making a pass off his dribble to Brown for the shot that would put Illinois ahead, except ...

There was Carolina's best player--not its greatest player, not its most certain pro, but its best player--there was the little guy, Raymond Felton, who knew where the ball would go, knew it because he had seen it all night, knew it because players know things they can't explain, and Raymond Felton put out his left hand, and now Luther Head's pass belonged to Raymond Felton, to Carolina, to history.

Fouled as he moved upcourt with the ball, Felton made a free throw for a three-point lead, and when Illinois missed its last shot, there was Felton again, the little guy, taking the rebound and fouled again, making two more free throws, Carolina the winner, 75-70.

Carolina won.

Illinois didn't lose.

There's a difference. Illinois was forced to rely on 3-point shooting. No one wins big games from out there, certainly not when you go 5-for-19 in the first half, 12-for-40 for the game. But it wasn't that Illinois wanted to be there. Carolina's defense--ignored in the media rush to celebrate scorers--wouldn't let it do anything else. Weak inside anyway, Illinois not only couldn't get the ball down low, its two big men committed nine fouls and were helpless against Carolina's interior defense.

In contrast, Carolina's big man, May, missed only one of 11 shots, all of them inside, and was the primary difference between these wonderful teams--unless, of course, you happen to have a fondness for the little guys with a sense of history, a little guy who talked the day before the game about hearing this season from North Carolina players of years gone by.

"Al Wood, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse, all those players from back in the day," Raymond Felton said. "They came, and they put a lot of words in our ears and let us know things."

They let these Carolina players know what was expected of them. Only three seasons ago, Carolina was 8-20 and in a trough of despair. Now it is 334 and national champion. And when it came time to stand up and do again what great Carolina players had done before, the littlest of them today stood at midcourt, confetti in the air, and Raymond Felton said, "I am going to cry. I just can't believe it."

Felton dared to dream big: ok, so I'm a sucker for little guys, but hear me out on this one

Sporting News, The, April 15, 2005 by Dave Kindred

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Arts

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports