RIP Lorenzo Charles

Killed in a bus crash in North Carolina. Scored the winning basket in the 1983 NCAA championship game for NC State:

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/9787277/

 

Wow, I remember his NC State and brief NBA career. Guess that means I'm officially old.

 

That makes two of us. I lived in the Houston area during the Phi Slamma Jamma days and remembered how my uncle's house went silent when Charles made that basket.

Let's be honest though: if there was a shot clock in 1983, NC State gets their ass kicked.

 

Well, true, but you have to credit them for taking advantage of the game as it existed at the time. Not just that night, but pretty much the entire season. IIRC, if they don't run the table at the ACC Tournament, they don't even get a NCAA bid (field was 52 teams in those days).

 

I don't mean to take this thread off on a tangent, but even if that's true, so what? No doubt there's an infinite number of athletic contests that would have turned out differently if different rules were in place. They played. N.C. State won.

 

Derek Wittenberg should have cashed in that jumper.

Feel bad about this. The books about Valvano, NC State and all the violations really ruined this memory for me. Great game...dirty as heck program.

But RIP Lo Charles...

 

Bob Charles has to be shitting bricks right now.

 

Thurl Bailey's quote about Jim Valvano needing someone to hug was priceless and fitting. RIP Lorenzo and for the 997th time ... just where was Akeem Olajuwon on that play. Trying to block Dereck Whittenburg's last-gasp shot?

Yeah, it's that simple. No one is disputing Phi Slamma Jamma's star power and off-the-charts athleticism. Similarly, NCSU shouldn't ever have to apologize for that win.

 

Hell, if Guy Lewis hadn't foolishly tried to sit on a second half lead - slowing the game down and allowing NC State to foul and exploit Houston's horrendous free throw shooting - NC State gets its ass kicked.

 

If.

 

That title game was the first NCAA one that I got to watch. My mom let me stay up and watch it even though it was past my bedtime. I don't remember too much of the game because I was trying not to fall asleep, but I sure do remember that ending.

RIP Lorenzo.