Ah, teenagers. They arrive home for the summer after their first experience with college, feeling all entitled, and shun household chores.
Rolando Lamb got the “why me?” treatment from his son after a request to mow the family’s Norcross lawn. Before the video-game console was ordered unplugged or the cellphone confiscated, Jeremy complied.
In truth, Dad was OK with cutting the normally obedient Jeremy some slack. After all, few freshmen are winding down from a more jubilantly hectic school year — with further frenzy straight ahead.
Jeremy left last fall for the University of Connecticut with measured expectations for basketball. He had started one season at Norcross High. Big East coaches projected the Huskies at No. 10 — in their conference.
He returned home recently with fame established and fortune just around the bend. His status on BlackBerry Messenger has been changed to “national champion.” He reaped more credit than any Huskie aside from the insuppressible Kemba Walker for UConn’s 11-game postseason odyssey to the NCAA title.
NBA talent evaluators advised the Lambs that Jeremy, a 6-foot-5 guard/forward, might be taken in the first round of the draft, but honor and wealth he chose to defer.
Last week, the Lambs were driving to a basketball camp that Dad operates when they broke out laughing at the blessed unreality of it all.
“You always dream big. But when it happens ... man,” said Rolando, a collegiate standout of his generation. “It was one of the most amazing runs in any sport I’ve ever seen.”
It was a run with his own flesh-and-blood, absent from top-100 recruiting rolls, front and center.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Jeremy said. “I still can’t believe it.”
Adding to the incredulity was a two-game stretch in January when he was buried on the bench, logging a combined 15 minutes.
“He was really down, questioning his ability,” Rolando said of their phone conversation.
Through childhood, Jeremy had tagged along to Rolando’s basketball camps and clinics, which have spiritual underpinnings, serving at times as a prop. With ministerial zeal, the self-proclaimed America’s Character Coach would preach about maintaining a positive attitude.
So Rolando hit the “play” button from his presentations and encouraged his son, as he had so many youngsters, to stay focused and optimistic. “Your time will come,” was the message.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who had alerted the media before the season that they would soon become aware of the obscure recruit, eventually restored Jeremy to his rotation.
If Lamb were losing sleep over his predicament, he used the time wisely. Many late nights, and a few early mornings, he would summon a loyal student manager and repair to the UConn practice gym to launch hundreds of shots. The solitude was interrupted only when a curious security guard would pop in to investigate.
The regular season ended with Lamb averaging a modest 10.8 points and worrying about his right knee, sprained in the last game. UConn’s view of the Big East tournament trophy was obscured by the daunting prospect of winning five games in five days — this, after going 9-9 in league play. His optimism, for individual and team, hardly ran rampant.
Then, once the Big East trophy was secured, the Huskies were widely considered physically and emotionally tapped out for the NCAA tournament. Even the preacher of positivity thought little of their chances.
“I was thinking Sweet Sixteen, maybe,” Rolando said.
Driven by Walker, the human energy drink, UConn bowled over five more foes. The final game against Butler was hide-your-eyes ugly at times, but Lamb rewarded viewers who endured.
Scoreless at halftime, he heated up for 12 points, second most to Walker’s 16, in the 53-41 slopfest. With a 7-foot-1 wingspan, which makes him prime-cut material for the NBA, Lamb strangled Shelvin Mack, holding the Bulldogs’ prolific scorer to 4-for-15.
Lamb, his NBA stock rising in tandem with his scoring average (15.2) in the postseason, was at first inclined to declare himself one-and-done. After prayer and some earthly considerations — a need to develop strength and leadership, plus a looming owners lockout — the lean, laconic Lamb made a call so close that one factor could have swung it the other way.
Calhoun is toying with retirement, having been double-teamed by poor health and NCAA violations that triggered a three-game suspension at the start of next season. The Lambs are convinced he will return, as do other observers who have noted Calhoun’s immersion in offseason recruiting.
“I love playing for coach Calhoun,” Lamb said. “He told me another year would be good for me.”
Lamb realizes he could use a personality transplant, from quiet sidekick last season to vocal headliner the next in the absence of Walker, a certain lottery pick Thursday in the draft, whose parting words were “You’re gonna have to step up, be a leader.”
As a featured performer for USA in the Under-19 World Championships, Jeremy should be afforded plenty of practice this summer. The team is assembling over this Father’s Day weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo., to prepare for the tournament in Latvia starting June 30.
Rolando is fond of telling his basketball campers, “Every challenge is an opportunity.” In front of last week’s audience of three dozen youngsters at a northwest Atlanta school, he could illustrate the proverb by pointing to his longtime prop.
At the same time, dad could not resist boasting that he could still whip his son in a round of one-on-one. Jeremy rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.
Ah, teenagers.
