Kansas Forward Julian Wright

My H.S. basketball coach is a lot like Bob Knight in mannerisms (probably because they are the same age). In my sophomore year, we were playing our crosstown rivals in a post-season district game in front of a standing room partisan crowd. Our point guard stole the ball, the other guard and the center starts the 3-on-1 fastbreak down the floor. The PG flips it to the center, who was uncertain whether or not he was going to dunk it or lay it up, proceeded to do both as he went up in the air.

He went up, tried to dunk the ball, but the ball hit the front end of the rim, the ball goes flying in the air over to the other end of the court and he slams flat on his back on the court. Coach went into his Bob Knight mode, benched the kid, cursing him out as he got up off the floor, calling him motherfucker and the like.

The following day, my cousin tells me what it sounded like on radio with the announcer calling it:

"...steal by Robinson, Galloway and Bonefas heading down the court, Robinson flips it to Bonefas for the dun....OH MY GOD!!! HE BROKE HIS BACK!!!!!!"

 

Yeah, because Kansas is the only team that "chokes" in the NCAA tournament...

 

Bradley maybe?

 

Except KU's choked recently to the Bradley Braves and Bucknell Bison. Last I checked, Southern Illinois doesn't have the double-B thing going for it.

 

Saw something very similar the other day with the low-major team I cover. Kid went to windmill from the side and by the time it was over, the ball had clanked off the front of the rim and he was lying on the ground.

 

Without having gone back to the game-day stories, does anybody know if Wright talked about what exactly happened on that play?

I'm curious as to his explanation.

 

Bill Self made him off-limits, according to this sidebar dedicated to the missed dunk on the Lawrence Journal-World Web site.

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jan/28/wrights_misslam_symbolic/?sports_columns

 

I hope that's a column and not a sidebar.

 

Yeah, it is. I used the wrong word above.

 

That is so lame. He missed a dunk in a 23-point win. What's the big deal?

 

There's a whole thread here dedicated to talking about it. It was on every ESPN show Monday. It must have been a pretty big deal.

 

No, I'm saying what was the big deal that Bill Self didn't make him available.

If you read the rest of this thread, I have been interested in this topic from the start.