Double dribble

Growing up in North Carolina has its perks, many of which I don’t personally know of. Brunswick stew, Eastern Carolina BBQ, Cook Out, and ACC basketball. OK, let’s be honest: food and basketball are both on my brain. But is that a bad thing?

If you’ve met me in person, it would be hard to believe I was once a dominant power forward on the court, but in the 2006-07 basketball season at Triway Jr. High, I had a whopping 19 total points for my seventh grade season for the purple and white Titans. Fact check me if you dare.

White Chocolate, as I was known to only my father (a nickname I was given for my ball handling and passing ability that mimicked Jason Williams of the Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies), hung up his And-1 shoes for the last time after that season, in favor of wrestling, a sport he would drop after eighth grade.

I was also a member of the Triway Wizards, a program for fifth and sixth graders that performed what I can only describe as interpretive basketball tricks, akin to synchronized swimming, but with spinning basketballs, dribbling tricks, and the same song every year. We performed all over Northeast Ohio, including Kent State, Malone University, and the University of Akron, alongside varsity basketball games.

My point being — I know ball. Behind only football, basketball is my number two favorite sport. It always has been and always will be.

For winter sports in Ohio, there are two camps: wrestling and basketball. Basketball players don’t like wrestlers, and wrestlers surely don’t like basketball players (that is, until the following fall, when they’re playing football together). Rarely will you find a family that enjoys both sports. My family was one of those exceptions. Coming from an athletic background, everyone in my family had to play three sports a year. Most of the time, we found a way to play four, as we fit both basketball and wrestling into our schedules.

My maternal grandfather was a basketball player in his younger years. He once played against famed coach Bobby Knight, from Orrville High School in Orrville, Ohio, when they were in high school at the same time — or so was the family legend (I have never fact-checked this, but who fact-checks their grandpa when he tells a story like that?) His sons — my uncles —were ball players in their youth before becoming well-rounded wrestlers in high school. My dad, though, was always a basketball player, with his broad-shouldered 6’3” or 6’4” (depending on when you asked him) frame.

I grew up shooting hoops in my backyard with my older brother. It was even cooler when we learned how to lower the hoop so we could dunk. My brother went on to hold his own in high school wrestling, as his 5’7”, stocky build was suited better to that sport than basketball. Me? I dropped every sport but football when my time came.

A piece of my childhood that has carried over, no matter where I have been, has been March Madness. I love every single thing about it. I vividly remember George Mason’s historic run in 2006, the same month I turned 12 years old. Almost 19 years later, and I still don’t forget them busting everyone’s brackets.

This time of year is the best in the sports world. Coming down from the high of the Super Bowl, people are looking for stuff to fill the void. NASCAR? Golf? Russian table tennis? Nope, it’s college basketball coming to save the day, albeit momentarily.

Where were you when No. 2 seed Ohio State got bounced in the round of 64 by No. 15 Oral Roberts in 2021? I watched them fumble that sitting at a brewery in Colorado. Did you have Oakland (which is in Michigan, not California, like probably north of 90 percent of people thought) beating Kentucky in the first round last year? How about N.C. State’s run through the ACC and beyond, led by big man DJ Burns? My daughter picked Oakland, surprisingly enough, but even Nostradamus couldn’t have predicted the Wolfpack’s reign of terror a season ago.

All of this basketball stuff is fun, but to you North Carolinians, it’s an every-season affair. You and your Blue Devils and Tar Heels are spoiled when it comes to basketball, and to be frank, I’m tired of it.

Actually, I’m not. Instead, I’m grateful. While I think UNC produced the second-best basketball player to ever live, the overall depth and wealth of talent to come out of the colleges here is immeasurable and incomparable.

Putting together an all-time greats team from UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest would be nearly impossible. The former two could probably fill up three or four teams that would be all-time greats at any other school, but to those perennial powerhouses, many of those players wouldn’t see the floor on an all-time team.

Names like Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison, Tyler Hansbrough, James Worthy, Billy Cunningham, and Lennie Rosenbluth fill out some of the spots for UNC. For Duke, Christian Laettner, JJ Redick, Grant Hill, Shane Battier, and Elton Brand do the same. At Wake Forest, it’s Chris Paul, Muggsy Bogues, Randolph Childress, Tim Duncan, and even Sampson County’s own Chris King. I could spend hours just watching teams that included these players.

But to you Tar Heels — the catch-all term for you North Carolina folk, regardless of your collegiate fandom — you’re spoiled with this. You’ve seen great basketball. Even if you’re not an N.C. State fan, you know of the ‘83 national championship, which further adds to the resume of North Carolina college basketball.

What are they putting in the water down here in the state that is home to the first flight (but not flight itself — that belongs to Ohio)? Why is there such good basketball? Even in down years, like this year for the Tar Heels, the product is still much better than other places, like the Big 12.

And I’ve only talked about boys’ basketball. Let’s look at the girls now. Two names, just in Sampson County alone, come to mind. Mikayla Boykin and Chasity Melvin. Add in April Cromartie, Danyel Parker, and Sampson County ranks as one of the best in the state for basketball talent.

While this column isn’t specifically about Sampson County, I would be remiss not to mention the depth of basketball talent here.

Nonetheless, it’s arguably the best month in the sports calendar, and once again, a North Carolina college is near the top of the rankings — a song and dance we have all seen many times before.