HOUSTON -- It's been 13 years, but it might as well be last week. The ingredients required to sear a moment into vivid, top-of-mind memory forever -- the adrenaline, exhaustion, sadness and poignant camaraderie -- were all there and then some.
The buzzer had just sounded. Roy Williams, three points and a Hakim Warrick block away from a goal he had relentlessly chased for decades, now walked the sideline toward his foil. He was, he'd recall later, "really sad," in the same way the ocean is really deep. But this next part was non-negotiable. A sacred rite had to be performed.