North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Lorenzo's Legend Lives On
3/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
Fortunately for NC State fans, they will never have to find out, because then-Wolfpack head coach Jim Valvano made a late scholarship offer that Charles was sure would never come.
Valvano was still trying to recruit, as he put it, “the nation’s best recruiting class,” in the spring of 1981. He already had commitments from two All-Americas, Raleigh Broughton’s Mike Warren, and Rutgers Prep’s Walter “Dinky” Proctor. He had a commitment from a highly regarded, but raw, center named Cozell McQueen from
Valvano and his staff which chose not to recruit anyone other than the pre-signed Harold Thompson after being hired in May, 1980, to replace Norm Sloan were still looking for a power forward to go with the rest of the crew.
A quarter-century ago, it would have been hard to imagine that the 17-year-old native of Panama, the least regarded member of Valvano’s first true recruiting class, would be remembered as an official Legend, NC State’s representative of at Saturday’s Legends Breakfast at the Westin Hotel in downtown Charlotte.
Charles, feted with representatives of the league’s other 11 schools, was also the featured speaker Friday at the Wolfpack Club’s annual ACC Tournament Breakfast in the ballroom of the
Valvano always joked that NC State didn’t beat Navy for Charles’ services; it beat the Navy. As in Charles might have enlisted instead of enrolled. But that’s an embellishment. Charles was actually about to commit to
Charles was really hoping to play in the ACC, but he thought he blew his chance with a sub-par performance in the Newsday Classic, a spring all-star event that pitted the best high school basketball players from
“There was a time where I didn’t think I would have a chance to play for NC State,” Charles recalled Friday. “They had already kind of bowed out, but when I started to perform well during my senior year in high school, they kind of got back into it.”
But Valvano had to give the final approval and he wanted to see Charles play. It just so happened to be his worst performance of the year.
“The next day, the phone rang and it was Coach V,” Charles said. “I was preparing myself to hear the word We are going to go in another direction.’ Instead, he said, Lorenzo, we want you to come to NC State.’
“I said, Why, didn’t you see the game last night?’”
That one subpar performance didn’t daunt Valvano, who saw a spark of something in Charles’ game. Besides, those few writers who covered high school basketball recruiting back then, referred to Charles as “the sleeper of the East,” recognizing his potential without considering his relative lack of accomplishment.
Valvano was sold: “We think you can be a player.”
It didn’t happen his freshman year, when Charles was out of shape and had trouble making it up and down the floor. It didn’t happen the first half of his sophomore year, when Charles was comfortable sitting back and letting seniors Dereck Whittenburg, Sidney Lowe and Thurl Bailey carry most of the load for the Wolfpack. It was their senior year, what could go wrong?
On Jan. 12, Whittenburg broke his foot against
Charles in particular.
“They called me the Sleeper of the East,’” Charles said. “After two years, I woke up.”
Charles recorded the first double-double of his career in the ACC Tournament opening round against
That victory, and Charles’ improving play, propelled the Wolfpack on its magical run to the 1983 NCAA Championship game. He scored in double figures in seven of the eight contests, but with just 44 seconds to play and the game tied 52-52, Charles had only two points in the national title game against top-ranked
Before he went onto the floor, Charles was pulled aside by teammate Mike Warren, who said, “Lorenzo, the reason we aren’t winning this game is that you haven’t gotten any dunks yet.”
Valvano was a little more direct: “Lo, you haven’t done anything all night. It’s about time you woke up.”
After a bungled possession, Whittenburg threw up a desperation 27-foot shot that wound up two feet short. Charles, standing directly under the basket, saw the ball would not make it to the rim. So he jumped up, grabbed the ball and stuffed it through the basket in one powerful motion.
The sleeper was fully awake, and the Wolfpack won the school’s second national championship.
As a junior and senior, Charles was named first-team All-ACC. He was twice voted runner up in the race for ACC Player of the Year honors, to
He and his wife Teresa live in the town of
“I had no idea that people would still be talking about that shot for this long,” Charles said.
And they will likely still be discussing it for many more years to come.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
