By Chip Alexander
Raleigh News and ObserverHarrison Barnes says he can sense the push and pull, blue against blue, building like a rising tide.
Barnes is considered the best high school basketball player in the country. At 6-foot-6, the senior has skills that have made him something of a legend in his hometown of Ames, Iowa.
“He’s Elvis out here,” Ames High basketball coach Vance Downs said.
It’s quite possible Barnes’ decision may come down to North Carolina or Duke ó the light hue or royal blue. If so, a legion of fans on one side will be pretty giddy, and those on the other side sad and mad, if not a bit bitter. Talk about some message-board trash talking.
“There’s a little tension there, to say the least,” Barnes said. “I’ve definitely heard it from both sides.”
Not that it’s just between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils. Barnes recently listed his final six schools. Also in the mix are Kansas, UCLA, Oklahoma and Iowa State, the hometown school and the first to offer him a scholarship.
“In the end,” Barnes said, “I’ll do what’s best for me.”
Duke was considered a frontrunner for Barnes, only to have Carolina come on strong. And the Heels all but rolled out the red carpet at the Smith Center when Barnes made his official recruiting visit and took in UNC’s Pro Alumni basketball game on Sept. 4. Barnes’ mother, Shirley, once taped many of Michael Jordan’s games after His Airness left North Carolina and was doing his thing for the Chicago Bulls, just in case she one day had a son. In May 1992, when she did give birth, her son was named Harrison Bryce-Jordan Barnes.
So here was Harrison Bryce-Jordan Barnes, on a Friday night at the Smith Center. Standing barely 15 feet away on the court was Jordan, MJ himself, basking in the roars of an adoring crowd before the alumni game.
Also on the court were such NBA players as Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Jerry Stackhouse. There was former UNC coach Dean Smith, and NBA coaches such as Larry Brown and George Karl, all back in Chapel Hill to help kick off the school’s 100th basketball anniversary.
Barnes would watch and clap as the Heels unveiled their 2009 NCAA championship banner that night. The next day, at Carolina’s football opener at Kenan Stadium, he would see the Heels receive their championship rings.
But there was Jordan that Friday night, so close. With his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame looming, Jordan flashed his megawatt smile as a video montage of his highlights was shown on the overhead screens.
“To have the greatest player to ever play the game … it kind of blows you away just trying to grasp the whole thing,” Barnes said.
After the game, Shirley Barnes stood in a Smith Center hallway with her 10-year-old daughter, Ashle Jourdan. Asked her thoughts on the experience, Shirley paused, as if trying to find the right words.
“It’s unexplainable,” Ashle said, taking the lead.
“Probably surreal,” Shirley said. “Michael Jordan is quite the favorite.”
The Barneses had a chance to meet Jordan, as NCAA rules allow. But only briefly.
“All they can do is say hello,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said of the former UNC players.
Still, it left a lasting impression, as did the evening and the visit.
“It’s very humbling to think you can be a part of a great tradition like that,” Harrison Barnes said last week.
(Contact Chip Alexander at chip.Alexander(at)newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
AP-NY-09-20-09 1104EDT