Three Dunks: a Tar Heel story.

“Dad, what was it like to watch Vince Carter live?”

Well son, it’s difficult to explain, you kinda just had to be there.

I got to watch Vince run out of the Smith Center tunnel exactly one time. It was January 17th of my senior year of high school, and my brother (a freshman at UNC) got me a ticket. We were way up in the rafters, but I’ll never forget the game, watching Ed Cota find Vince all over the court. The highlight was most certainly the windmill dunk that triggered Bill Guthridge to empty the bench to get the reserves in the game.

Back to the question: my son was about 7 at the time, and I quietly decided that (financially wise or not) I was going to take him to watch the Heels live.

A couple of years later, on January 8th, 2017, we snuggled into seats way up on the end line side of the court, me and my two oldest boys.

Theo Pinson had been out for much of the season rehabbing a broken foot, and though I think he played a bit at the game before this one, it was really the true “welcome back game.”

With about 5:45 left in the game, Theo Pinson made a core memory happen for my boys when he attempted to remove the rim from the backboard:

My two oldest boys still refer to it as one of the most fun moments of their childhood.

That 9-year-old is about to graduate high school this year. For Christmas, we got two tickets to see the Heels take on the Yellow Jackets in snowy Atlanta.

We snuggled into our seats where we could literally touch the ceiling of McCamish Pavilion. Behind us, a family scooted into the last row. A mom, dad, and three kids (between the ages of about 6 and 12).

With just over 2 minutes left in the first half, Kyan Evans made what all of us thought was a bad lob. From where I was sitting, it looked like Kyan was lobbing it to… me.

But Caleb Wilson (instead of high-fiving the bald guy in the rafters) grabbed the egregiously high lob, twisted it in his hand, and did a spot-on Vince Carter impersonation.

The place erupted. (Note: not a home game.)

My son turned over his shoulder and asked the kid sitting behind him “do you know who Theo Pinson is?”

*blank stare*

“Well anyways, what just happened for you with Caleb Wilson is what happened to me when I was about your age, only it was Theo Pinson.”

As we hopped back in the car to head up the snowy road, I couldn’t help but think I had finally answered my 7-year-old’s question.

What was it like to watch Vince live?

It was kinda like that, son.