Lavin and Knight: That Miracle UCLA Season, part 1
Be forewarned, you won't look at the world the same after reading this two-part story. You'll have your preconceived ideas of redemption challenged.
How can a homeless man's advice and passion change the course and fortunes of a UCLA season by being real for Billy Knight?
How would legendary coach Steve Lavin answer the challenge of playing a bench player who caught fire in practice? These events intersect like a Tarantino movie, resulting in a historic turnaround for a Bruin team on the brink.
The Butterfly Effect states, "The sputtering of tiny butterfly wings can lead to a hurricane on the other side of the Rewind.” In the 1999-2000 season, Knight is a soph getting no playing time, no burn for the Bruins.
Knight said the UCLA assistant coach Jim Saia was saying Billy Knight "will never play at UCLA! "
Imagine what it felt like, being a kid from Inglewood who had dreamed his whole life to play for his dream school UCLA. It must've felt like poisonous liquid cyanide being shot into his veins - nobody likes to get S*** on, u feel me?
Knight says he was so frustrated that "At that moment I quit the team, told Coach Lavin that I was transferring right away."
B-Knight had gone home that night to watch his "boys" vs Purdue on TV, without him on the bench. Alone and regretful as he says, "I wasn't with them, that made me feel extremely sad."
Meanwhile, a homeless guy named Carter who slept in the bushes on campus, had watched Billy every day at UCLA's practice and liked to give him basketball advice. Billy didn't know that Carter had been the victim of a terrible crime by society.
As Lavin tells it, "Carter watched our games and he knew that Billy quit. But he knew Billy could be more than he had shown." A homeless guy knew this, a homeless person who was in his late 50s. But he cared so much about Billy, like he was his family.
Carter searched out to B-Knight at a Fat-burger located near campus, came at Knight and told him, "Billy, you can't transfer man, you're not even good enough to transfer. When have you ever taken a charge, how hard do you play?"
At that moment Knight had an epiphany. He realized Carter was right, that he hadn't tried hard enough. He hadn't given his best to earn PT at UCLA. Knight rushed to call Lavin and say, "Coach, I realized I haven't tried enough, will you take me back?"
Lavin told him, “You'll have to ask your teammates, they have to accept you back Billy." Whoa, how that must've felt, knowing you had to ask to be taken back?
Billy says of that fateful day, "I went into the locker room at the next practice, told my teammates, I don't care about playing time, will you guys take me back, I just want to play with you guys again."
As Knight recalls there was a minute of silence, his guys looking stone faced at him. Billy said "It felt like a whole year in that minute." But all of the sudden the guys, who had already known they wanted him, they just wanted to play out a joke on Billy, give him silent time to play around.
But his Bruin fam, they loved him, all of his teammates jumped up and down, hooted, hollered, cheered out his name and yelled "Billy, Billy...we love you bro!” Guys like Earl Watson said, “We love you bro, come back to us."
There must've been tears of joy, a feeling of fear and elation, all at the same time rumbling in Knight’s belly.
Why is Steve Lavin a great human? Lavin knew that the fore mentioned Carter had not always been a homeless guy. Carter had been a family man, graduated Cal St Dominguez Hills, been a high school teacher, high school coach...until...
One day, as Lavin recalls, Carter had told Lavin that his whole family had been shot dead in a liquor store robbery gone wrong. No....No.....No - Carter wasn't just a homeless person, he wasn't just a bum as some might've perceived him.
Lavin saw Carter as a victim of society. What would we do, how might we act if our entire family was killed in a robbery?
Lavin is my hero, he honored Carter, has commented online that Carter was a "friend of the UCLA program, who fell on hard times. Carter was a caring person who radiated life." Lavin saw Carter's dignity, witnessed his love for Billy, UCLA, his fellow human.
Lavin realized that Carter was like Robin William's character in the movie The Fisher King. In that movie Williams played Parry, a homeless man who was searching for the holy grail.
Carter, living in the bushes and parking lots at night at UCLA, wasn't a movie character, he was a real person. He hadn't always been a homeless man but he found his holy grail, he got Billy to realize that he needed to not give up on himself and rejoin his Bruin brothers.
Carter died a couple of years later but not before seeing Billy persevere for UCLA. Lavin attended Carter's funeral, he knew Carter had dignity.
S-Lavin loves Billy so much, he nominated Billy for the Senior Class Award and said this, "My most memorable year in coaching came in 2000, a season when Billy Knight’s story and destiny converged to take a hand in our team’s time of need."
Billy Knight had been told by Carter that he hadn't given his all and Billy realized this to be true and recommitted himself. He became a better player, taking charges, dedicating himself to putting in the work, to not bulls*** himself anymore. He was determined to show himself, show Coach Saia, show Carter that he could get PT and burn on the court.
Billy Knight was a kid from Westchester, a Comet in high school, that went on to become a man, a UCLA Bruin. I've known or did stories on legendary Westchester and Bruin players like Sam Crawford, Hassan Adams, Trevor Ariza, Andre McCarter, Baron Davis, Aaron Afflalo, Jordan Farmar, Earl Watson.
Yes, so many Bruins and Comets, but B-Knight impresses as much as any of these guys because as Billy told me, "I needed to realize I had to change, improve, make it happen for myself through practicing better, believing I could earn the minutes."
How many of us could find the courage to challenge ourselves the same way?
In part 2 read much more in detail on how the ‘Comeback” got in gear and how it turned out. You may not believe it.