The Year After

Simmons Restaurant is a noisy soul-food joint on the edge of downtown Charlotte , with crowded walls that are a shrine to North Carolina sports. Yellowing photos of the long-departed Hornets are plastered next to autographed Panthers memorabilia and even the stray bit of Hurricanes minutiae, but there is almost no evidence of the Bobcats on display, though the team plays just a mile away. At Simmons the only basketball that matters now is Tar Heels basketball, which explains the abundance of baby-blue items decorating its walls. So when Raymond Felton , Sean May and Marvin Williams , three fourths of the greatest draft class in UNC history (and that's saying something), rolled in for lunch on a chilly February day, it was easy to guess what everyone inside wanted to discuss.

"How are you guys going to do in the tournament?" one diner asked, and nobody thought for a second that he was referring to their NBA teams. The restaurant's owner brought over a batch of UNC memorabilia to be signed. No one mentioned--let alone asked for tickets to--that night's game between the Atlanta Hawks ( Williams 's current employer) and the Bobcats (for whom Felton and May play), one of the least-anticipated matchups of this NBA season. "The first thing everybody says around here is, 'I'm a huge Tar Heels fan,'" May explains, rolling his eyes. "And I'm always like, 'What, you're not a Bobcats fan? Or did you just forget to add that?'"

No matter what they do in the pros, May, Felton and Williams will always be remembered in these parts for their heroics last spring when, along with Rashad McCants , they led North Carolina to the national title. Those Tar Heels were an exhilarating--if maddening--team that displayed only a passing interest in defense, occasionally fought over the ball but in the end overwhelmed the tournament field with their talent. Felton , a junior point guard, was the fierce leader and canny distributor. May, a junior center who was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, owned the post with his wide body and soft hands. Junior shooting guard McCants was an explosive slasher who could also stretch defenses with his outside touch, while Williams , the 6'9" freshman extraordinaire, brought a rare athleticism and nonstop motor to both forward positions.

And then they were gone, headed for the pros, it seemed, even before One Shining Moment had faded out. The 19-year-old Williams went second overall; Felton and May were snapped up fifth and 13th, respectively; and McCants was taken 14th, by Minnesota . It was the first time four nonseniors from the same team had been selected in the first round.

So now, instead of preparing to defend their NCAA title, they are all buried at the bottom of the box scores on teams with varying degrees of ineptitude. That night's Hawks-Bobcats game featured two cellar-dwellers a combined 43 games under .500, with Charlotte 12 games into a 13-game losing streak. McCants 's Timberwolves, meanwhile, were in the midst of a swoon that would almost certainly knock them out of the playoff picture, for a second consecutive year. Later that afternoon the roster for the All-Star rookie-sophomore game was announced. None of the four Tar Heels rookies were selected, an inconceivable notion at the start of the year.

So it's little wonder that their lunch conversation is salted with little jabs and gallows humor. "See Rashad's dunk the other night?" May asks, to no one in particular.

"Lefthanded?" says Williams .

"No doubt. I hit him up after that on the BlackBerry . He's like, 'You know me, same old G.'"

Knowing laughter.

"He said this is a big game for us [tonight]," May continues. "It's to see who gets first pick in the draft."