NEW ORLEANS — Only one team, one coach, gets to bask under One Shining Moment, gets to cut down the nets after winning the national championship on Monday night.
Hubert Davis Jr. has knocked down one obstacle after another on his way to Dean Smith’s North Carolina, to the Knicks, to ESPN, to Roy Williams’ North Carolina on his way to becoming the first black coach at Michael Jordan’s alma mater.
But no hurdle was greater for Davis than when he lost his mother Bobbie to oral cancer as a 16-year-old boy.
That singular victory over himself made all the victories that would follow possible.
“He couldn’t understand why God would do something like that,” Hubert Davis Sr. told The Post on Monday afternoon. “He just didn’t understand it and was upset with God for doing that. He had a tough time accepting that.”
For a long time.
“It was either late in his freshman year in college or his sophomore year, and he was still dealing with that pain,” Hubert Sr. said.
“I said, ‘Hubert, you need to go to church, and talk to God about how you’re feeling and ask Him for His help.’ He started going to church, became a Christian, and man, did you see the difference in him. His whole behavior changed. He was accepting it, and he could talk about it a lot more.
“I said, ‘Hubert, if you continue to think about your mother’s gone, as opposed to thinking about you had her for 16 years, then you will begin to not dwell on the negativity, but on the positive.’ And he started doing that. And it just helped him to live and to accept that he doesn’t have a mother now, and he could go forward.”
Hubert Sr. had met Bobbie, two years older, at Johnson C. Smith University, where he played forward on the basketball team.
“I was a second-year freshman, and me and three roommates lived off campus,” he said. “One of ’em came back to our room and said, ‘You know, there are some girls that live off campus too. We oughta go down there and introduce ourselves.’ And when we went down there, that’s when I met my wife Bobbie.”
Love at first sight? “It was a mutual attraction,” was the way Hubert Sr. put it.
This was in 1966. They were married in December 1967. They were partners for 19 years. When Bobbie passed, it pierced his heart. He had a 10-year-old daughter, Keisha, to care for as well.
“I got through it a lot by going to church, and asking for God’s help in raising my two kids,” Hubert Sr. said. “I asked God to help me and teach me the things that I didn’t know how to do in raising two kids. And I tell everybody this — if you don’t think that there’s somebody up above that can help you in a time of need, then I can testify to that. Because sometimes I wondered myself how I got through that.”
The father is understandably proud of the man and the coach Hubert Jr., 52 next month and father of three, has become.
“We never talked about an NBA career,” Hubert Sr. said. “When Hubert was growing up, all the way through high school, all Hubert wanted to do was play basketball for Carolina.”
Hubert Sr. had played golf with Smith and become a friend. But Smith came into his living room and was reluctant to offer Hubert Jr. because he feared it would hurt their friendship if his son wouldn’t warrant playing time.
“I said, ‘Coach, don’t worry about that. Hubert would do fine. He will work and do whatever he has to do to play at Carolina,’ ” Hubert Sr. said.
Hubert was in high school when Smith visited the house.
“The reason it wasn’t the traditional way is because Hubert had been going to Coach Smith’s camp since he was 9 years old, so Coach Smith knew him very well,” Hubert Sr. said.
Smith changed his mind two days later and called Hubert Jr. with an offer.
“He was smiling, and happy. Just as happy as you could be,” Hubert Sr. said. “I remember Hubert saying something like, ‘Dad, I’m gonna prove it that I can be a Carolina player.’ ”
Hubert Sr. chuckled at the recollection of a call he would receive from Smith when Hubert Jr. began walking the talk. “Shows you what I know,” Smith said.
Of course Hubert Sr. cites Hubert Jr.’s two free throws that won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals for the Knicks over Scottie Pippen and the Bulls.
“He loved Coach [Pat] Riley,” Hubert Sr. said. “He’s a tough, tough coach, and he pays attention to details and everything.”
Hubert Jr. called his father to let him know that Williams would be stepping down and recommending him as North Carolina’s next coach.
“I said, ‘Hubert, if he recommends you and this is something that you want to do, you gotta accept it. Because if you don’t, you won’t forgive yourself for the rest of your life,’ ” Hubert Sr. said.
Father wasn’t worried about son. “He’s a dedicated person,” Hubert Sr. said. “Once he steps into something, he will commit to it. I just knew that if he accepted, and that was something he wants to do, then he will put everything in it that he had to be successful.”
Hubert Sr. was at Saturday’s Duke game, after which Hubert Jr. told him perhaps he would reflect over the summer on ending Coach K’s career, just not now. Hubert Sr. had to fly back to his Burke, Va., home because he could not get a flight back on Tuesday.
“Hubert has an endearing personality,” Hubert Sr. said. “He’s very very encouraging, and he’s not a negative person. He can always see the good side in a person. And he can always forecast teams that are good. And I think that resonates very well with these young players.”
Hubert Jr. has a chance to be the first rookie coach to win a national championship … as North Carolina’s first black head coach. “I concentrate on the fact that yes, you are black, yes, you are the first black coach in North Carolina history,” Hubert Sr. said. “But become one of the best coaches that North Carolina has had.
“You focus on that, and then everything else would take care of itself.”
For father and son, everything eventually did.
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