Twenty-eight years after snatching Dereck Whittenburg’s air ball and turning it into a national championship-winning slam dunk, former forward Lorenzo Charles passed away in a bus accident on Interstate 40 in Raleigh Monday night. He was 47.
Charles’ former N.C. State teammate, Ernie Myers, recalled the phone conversation he had with his close friend the day before the accident.
“He was not only my teammate, he was my friend. He’d come over to my house, I’d go over to his — we’d hang out, go to lunch,” Myers said. “I just spoke to him Sunday. His wife called while we were talking and he said he’d call me back. I hadn’t spoken to him again when I heard about what had happened.”
Charles and Myers, both from New York, knew each other before they came to N.C. State. Charles was a Brooklyn native, and Myers was from the Bronx.
“We met each other through basketball, just playing each other. We go way back.”
The Wolfpack faced off with U. Houston’s ‘Phi Slama Jama,’ which reached the NCAA Final with a 26-game winning streak before receiving its second loss of the season at the hands of Charles, resulting in what is arguably the biggest upset, at that stage, in college basketball history.
While probably best known for the dunk that sent coach Jim Valvano running eagerly around the court, Charles is remembered by his friends and family for his humble nature and larger-than-life smile.
“My fondest memory of him is not a last-second dunk,” Myers said. “I remember him for all the times we’ve had outside of basketball while just being friends and the camaraderie of being teammates. Just throughout the years, seeing him and enjoying his laugh.
“He had an infectious laugh. Anyone that knew Lorenzo will see this in writing and know exactly what I was talking about. When he laughed, everyone knew he was laughing. You’d turn around and wonder, ‘what is so funny?’ But when you saw him laughing, you weren’t going to ask him, ‘what’s so funny?’ He was a big guy.”
Tim Peeler, author of “N.C. State Basketball: 100 Years of Innovation,” said he will remember Charles not only for his menacing personality on the court, but also for the way he acted outside of the game.
“He was a physically imposing guy who looked scary out on the court,” Peeler said. “But the thing his closest friends and everyone will tell you is he’s a soft-hearted, easy-going guy off the court. It was a change that’s hard to describe.”
Listed at 6 feet 7 inches and 240 pounds, he certainly had the imposing presence. But Charles was not always as outgoing before Valvano recruited him.
“What made Lorenzo so special was that he grew on that team,” Myers said. “He was a shy guy. At the beginning of the season, he wasn’t even playing that much, but we pushed him, and he responded. As the season progressed, he got better and better, and at the end of the year he was just playing some great basketball.
“The team was sort of like his coming out party, and while that dunk gave him a lot of notoriety, it did a lot more for his confidence.”
The two years during which Charles played for N.C. State after winning the national championship were some of his best. He averaged 18.0 points and 8.3 rebounds as a junior and 18.1 points and 6.4 rebounds as a senior. He made the first-team All-ACC both years and earned All-American honors in his final year.
In 1985, the Atlanta Hawks chose him as the No. 41 pick in the NBA draft. After a single disappointing season in the NBA, Charles played for various European teams before retiring from basketball in 1999 and returning to N.C., where he later became a driver for various transportation companies. Charles discussed the details of his occupation with his friend, Myers.
“He had retired from basketball and was looking for things to get into,” Myers said. “He just kind of fell into it; limo driving and bus driving. He would drive around the country and people knew him. When people knew he was driving, they’d ask for autographs and talk to him, which he liked.”
Just last week, Charles visited State and met the new basketball coach, Mark Gottfried, for the first time.
“The entire Wolfpack family is devastated to hear the news about Lorenzo Charles,” Gottfried said. “He holds a special place in Wolfpack history and in the hearts of generations of fans. We just reconnected with him last week, and our staff was stunned to hear the terrible news.”
No matter where he went, it is clear that Charles had a positive impact on the people he met, regardless of their school affiliation. Whether it was former Wolfpack teammates and fans or Tarheel passengers in his presence, he greeted everyone with kindness. The N.C. State community is better off because of him and bids farewell to a cherished friend.
“A few weeks ago, when [1983 assistant basketball coach] Ed McLean passed away, all of the guys got together to attend his funeral,” Peeler said. “Lorenzo, Dereck Whittenburg, Ernie Myers and all the guys always made a point to be there for each other when something devastating like that happened.
“To think they are going to do the same thing now for [Charles] is just truly unfathomable.”