March 2014
The screen displayed the ESPN logo over a black background before the show's opening theme filled the studio with that specific sound characteristic of prime-time sports analysis shows.
College Basketball Tonight. 2013-14 Season.
The lead anchor, Rece Davis, sitting at the round table in the Bristol studio with three analysts to his left and a touch screen with stats to his right, opened the show with the energy of presenters who know they have great material and don't need to exaggerate it to make it work.
"Good evening. We've been telling you for weeks that this NCAA season is one of the most compelling we've covered on this show in many years, and tonight we're going to show you exactly why." He paused as the camera swept across the panel. "We are three weeks away from March Madness. The brackets are filling up. Conversations about who will win the tournament are everywhere. And there is one name appearing in all of them without exception, regardless of who you talk to or what stat sheet you consult."
All three analysts nodded in unison. It was the kind of consensus that only happens when the answer is so obvious no one needs to think about it.
"Aaron Reed," said the first analyst, a former ACC point guard who had been on the ESPN panel for six years. He left the name hanging in the air for a moment without adding anything else. "There is no other conversation. This eighteen-year-old kid is playing a brand of basketball that shouldn't be possible at the college level. Not at the college level. Period."
"Hard to argue with that," said the second analyst. "From mid-February onward, this kid's numbers are from another planet. Averaging 27 points, 14 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. Those are prime NBA player numbers, not those of an eighteen-year-old freshman playing his first college year. But the numbers are the easiest part to describe. What's hard to describe is what makes those numbers happen."
"Precisely," Rece said with a smile. "Technique is what you see on the court. It's what you see in the numbers. But there's something deeper beneath that is harder to quantify, and it's exactly what has made this Kentucky team the favorite to win the tournament. And that's why tonight we have something special prepared. But first, the highlights."
The screen behind them filled with footage.
The first was against Ole Miss, a few days prior. Rupp Arena packed with a full home-court advantage, though at this point in the season that was almost a formality for an undefeated team. Aaron receiving the ball in the right low post with a defender glued to his back and another closing in from the weak side—the same double-team scheme several teams had tried to execute against him throughout the season with consistently poor results. Aaron lowered his center of gravity, faked with his left shoulder, and when both defenders committed their weight in that direction, he took two steps toward the rim with a speed unnatural for a 7-foot man, finishing with a right-handed dunk that struck the backboard and went in with a force that made the rim vibrate for half a second after the bucket.
"Look at that footwork," said the first analyst as the video replayed in slow motion, showing the sequence frame by frame. "Two steps. Only two steps from the low post to the rim. The ground Aaron Reed covers in those two steps takes other big men three or four. And look at the defender who came over from the weak side to help. He didn't even manage to get his feet off the floor. The shot was already done by the time he arrived."
The second clip was against LSU, days later. The Wildcats were still playing at Rupp Arena, trailing by two points with six seconds on the clock and the ball in Andrew Harrison's hands at mid-court. Harrison advanced three steps, saw the lane to the rim closed off, and spotted Aaron on the left perimeter outside his usual position—in a space the LSU defender didn't expect to cover because Aaron shouldn't have been there. The defender arrived late, still a step away, expecting a pass or a drive. Aaron gave him neither option. He stepped back with his left foot to create necessary separation, elevated with the mechanics of any perimeter shooter, and released a fifteen-foot fadeaway as the clock hit zero. Swish. Kentucky won by one.
"That," said the third analyst, pointing at the screen with his pen, "is not done by a center. Let alone a freshman. Three or four players in the entire professional league have that shot in their repertoire, and most took years to develop it. Aaron Reed has it at eighteen years old in the NCAA."
The third clip was against Arkansas, playing the final game of February. Aaron in the low post with a single defender—a one-on-one situation that on paper should have been the simplest of the three for the opposing team, yet turned out to be the exact opposite. The Arkansas defender positioned himself with the clear intention of anticipating the right spin, which was the move Aaron executed most frequently in the low post and the one video coordinator reports had identified as his first option. Aaron felt it before the defender had even finished setting his stance. He faked right to confirm the anticipation was there, then faked left again with the same hip movement he had perfected over years until it became second nature. The moment the defender lost his balance, he completed the Dream Shake—a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree pivot that ended in a short left-handed hook shot that went in without touching the rim.
"The Dream Shake," said the host, unable to hide a smile. "I don't think anyone in this studio or watching at home needs an explanation for that reference."
"No," said the first analyst. "And precisely that reference—the Dream Shake, the name we're all thinking of—is the reason we have who we have sitting to our left tonight."
The camera panned to the left of the studio. The person sitting there gave a subtle nod toward the rest of the people in the room.
Hakeem Olajuwon was seated in a chair slightly offset from the main panel, wearing a dark suit and carrying the calm posture of someone whose presence in a room changes the temperature of the conversation without saying a word. Two NBA rings. Two Final MVP awards. Back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards. All-time leader in NBA blocks. One of the greatest centers in history according to a wide enough majority to make any debate academic at best.
"Hakeem, thank you so much for being here with us tonight," said the host.
"It is a pleasure," Olajuwon said in a quiet voice, his distinct Nigerian accent still present.
"For weeks we've been hearing that Aaron Reed is the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon. What do you think about that?"
Olajuwon smiled slightly. It wasn't a smile of modesty or disagreement; it was something more specific.
"Aaron Reed does not play like me," he said.
The panel fell silent for a moment. The anchor waited.
"Aaron Reed plays like Aaron Reed," Olajuwon continued. "And that is something completely different." He paused. "When I played, my game was the post. One-on-one from the low block. The Dream Shake, the hook shot, the fakes in both directions. My entire offensive game occurred within ten feet of the basket. That is what I did, and what I did better than anyone for many years in Houston. That was my world."
He pointed toward the screen where Aaron's last clip was still playing.
"Look at what you just showed. That fadeaway against LSU from the perimeter. That would have never crossed my mind. I didn't shoot shots like that. Not because I physically couldn't, but because my game was not built for that." He paused. "The question is not whether Reed resembles me. The question is what Reed is building, because what I am seeing in those clips is not a copy of anyone who has played before. It is something different. It is something still taking shape, and in an eighteen-year-old player, that is far more interesting than any comparison anyone can make."
"And in that sense, in what specific way is he different from the great centers of the past?" the first analyst asked.
"In the sense that he combines things that normally do not combine in a single player," Olajuwon said. "A center with the post dominance Reed possesses, with that catalog of moves we saw tonight, who can also step out to the perimeter and hit a fifteen-foot fadeaway as the buzzer sounds to win it. That does not exist in college basketball. Or it didn't until now." He pointed back at the screen. "But there is something else the clips don't fully capture. Look at the Ole Miss tape again."
The producer brought up the clip. Olajuwon leaned forward slightly with his elbows on his knees, watching the screen with the focus of someone searching for something specific in the sequence. He waited until the moment of the pass before speaking.
"Right there."
He pointed at the screen. "Do you see that exact moment? Before the ball even hits his hands, Aaron Reed already has his eyes up, reading the floor positions. The decision of whether to attack the rim or look for the pass is already made. That is point guard vision, not center vision. It is the vision of the best floor generals I faced in my career." He paused. "It reminds me of Magic Johnson."
The panel didn't say a word for a second.
"Magic Johnson." The host repeated it slowly so no one watching at home could mishear.
"The way he reads the floor before making a decision," Olajuwon said calmly. "The way he raises his eyes before the ball reaches his hands and already knows where every defender is and where every teammate will be when he has to make the choice. Magic did that. And Magic did it from the point, with the ball in his hands, controlling the tempo of the entire team for forty minutes. Aaron Reed does it from the post, with his back to the basket, the instant he receives the pass. The speed at which he processes that information is the same. The stage is completely different."
The third analyst leaned back in his chair and looked at Olajuwon. "Hakeem. You just compared the court vision of a college freshman to Magic Johnson."
"I said the way he sees the floor reminds me of what Magic did," Olajuwon said smoothly. "Which is different. I am not saying he is Magic Johnson or that he will be Magic Johnson. I am saying that when I look at how he sees the court, something in that ability to process the position of nine players simultaneously from the low post reminds me of what Magic did from the point. They are different things, but they share the same root. Aaron Reed is Aaron Reed. He is eighteen years old, in his freshman year, and still has everything ahead of him."
Rece nodded and turned back to the camera.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely why this year's March Madness promises to be unlike any before it." He paused to let the sentence settle. "The Kentucky Wildcats enter the tournament undefeated in the regular season. With the best college center we've seen in years. With a head coach who knows how to handle tournament pressure, and with a squad that has proven all season long that they know how to win in different ways. And with a number 15 who, according to the legend sitting to our left tonight, is like no one who has come before him." He pointed toward the screen where the tournament bracket was already appearing. "Their first game is against Kansas State. Circle the date on your calendar. You won't want to miss it."
"You won't want to miss it," the first analyst repeated with a smile.
The show's closing theme music began to play over the final images of the tournament, the bracket, the eight regions, the sixty-four teams set to begin playing in days. The NCAA logo. The ESPN logo. And for two seconds, before the screen cut to black, a frozen image of Aaron Reed at the moment of the fadeaway against LSU—his body fading back, his right arm following through, the ball still in the air, the clock at zero, and twenty-three thousand people on their feet in the arena waiting to see if the ball went in.
It went in.
Like always.
Authors thought
What did you think of today's chapter? Give me your opinions and thoughts.
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