Devin Harris, if you accept what he said last week, now knows whether he will enter the NBA draft or return for his senior season at UW. He plans to make his intentions known soon.
Can you imagine the pressure Harris must be under? How do you balance the hopes and dreams of thousands of Badger basketball fans against the opportunity to accelerate your game by playing against the best competition in the world? Oh, and the millions of dollars can't hurt, either. Not having to worry about violating NCAA rules when you visit the Shoe Box because you now have enough money to own your own shoe store is probably a comforting thought.
The media has had problems in recent weeks gauging whether Harris is staying or going because his humble demeanor makes him hard to figure out.
For Devin, it has never been about him-it's always been about the team. Harris didn't seem particularly comfortable with all the attention he started getting once he found his three-point shot last year and took over in Big Ten play.
So what does this mean? If he doesn't care very much about all the personal stats-after next year he could leave as not only the greatest basketball player in UW history (sorry, Michael Finley) but also as perhaps the single most important athlete to his or her team ever at UW-then what does he have left to prove after leading the team to a school record for wins, a Big Ten championship and being named the best player in his conference?
However, if it's always been about the team, then why would he leave, when his presence would be better for the team? Without Devin, UW is just another solid but unspectacular squad. Look no further than Marquette without Dwyane Wade this year to see the potential backslide.
The great thing about UW basketball since Finley began a renaissance in the early '90s is the teams have featured good but not great players who stuck around for four years because they didn't have realistic NBA hoop dreams.
Well, except for Rashard Griffith, who foolishly left UW after his sophomore season in 1995 and has since bounced around Euro-league teams in Israel, Turkey, Italy and Spain.
More recently, Lee Evans and Ron Dayne have played out the entirety of their football careers here. We students just aren't used to seeing great athletes leave us early to go to the big time.
If Harris decides to leave, it certainly won't be the end of the world. It's not as if suddenly nothing will taste good anymore or life will have lost all meaning. But what a season UW basketball could have next year. I might spend much of my summer daydreaming of the possibilities.
Here's to hoping it will become a reality.
mtworringer@wisc.edu.
