Mother Knew Best for Harris

Picture a child in first grade. He lives in Watts. His mother is raising nine kids. His father is a termite exterminator in Compton. The school bus comes at 6:30 every morning. It takes the sleepy child over the hill and into the Valley. He is part of a district busing program. He doesn’t get back home until 6 at night.

For years and years, this routine repeats itself. By ninth grade, the kid is worn out. And he misses his friends from the neighborhood. He lets his mother know that he would rather attend a high school in the city. Nancy Johnson’s eyes let her son know how she feels about this. And soon, there he is, back on the bus, morning after morning, commuting to Cleveland High in faraway Reseda.

“I could tell, she just didn’t want me to turn out bad,” Lucious Harris says.

He did not. Once, his mother dreaded that Lucious might become--his word--a “gangster.” Now, instead, he is nearing his college degree in criminal justice. He will get his diploma this summer. If nothing else pans out, he will become a probation officer, do some good, point others in the right direction.

In the meantime, much to his own surprise, as someone who as a kid didn’t give a second look or a second bounce to a basketball, Lucious Harris has become virtually a sure-thing NBA first-round draft choice--maybe even a lottery pick.

He is the backbone of the Cal State Long Beach backcourt, a 6-foot-5 senior who has become his school’s all-time scoring leader and soon will become his conference’s. Harris has led Long Beach to eye-opening victories over nationally ranked Nevada Las Vegas and Kansas. Pro scouts by the bunches are checking him out, as they will again at UNLV tonight.

Harris has no clue where he goes from here. But one thing is clear: “I’m working on improving my grade-point average as much as my scoring average. You can’t take the future for granted. Now that I look back, it’s a good thing my mother kept insisting and insisting, because there’s no way of knowing how I might have turned out.”

Seth Greenberg, his coach, can’t say enough about Harris. Among other things: “He’s as good a two-guard as there is in the country.”

Fame came not overnight, but quickly. On Jan. 7, inside the tight-squeeze gym that the 49er fans affectionately call the “Gold Mine,” Long Beach beat UNLV, ending that school’s long run of success. Bryon Russell piled up 33 points, 11 rebounds. Harris scored 25.

Having led the team in scoring three years running, Harris began to emerge as leader of a top college team--perhaps Southern California’s best. Jim Hill invited him to the Channel 2 studio. Lucious got out his green sport jacket that he had worn only once, to a wedding. His sister, Pamela, with whom he lives, got out her camera and took some pictures. It was a big day for a large family.

Then came Jan. 12, not such a good day. John Harris, one of Lucious’ older brothers, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. A man had been shot. John swore he acted in self-defense. The case is about to come to court, and Lucious said Saturday he thinks it will turn out in his brother’s favor.

At the time, Lucious tried to put it out of his mind. Two days after the arrest, he scored 34 at Nevada, a season high.

The schedule, though, turned relentless. It was like traveling to and from school as a kid again, only on airplanes instead of buses. Says Greenberg, remembering the grind: “We’re in Reno one night, at Utah State the next. Pretty soon it’s Big Monday and we’re playing Santa Barbara. Thursday night, we have a tough one with Fullerton. Then we wake up at 6 the next morning, fly all the way across the country to Virginia and pull into Richmond at 8 o’clock that night. We were dragging.”

When many wondered how Long Beach could have been pounded by 34 points by Virginia Commonwealth, this was what few took into account.

The good news was that maybe, just maybe, Kansas, then the No. 1 team in the country, took Long Beach a little less seriously than it should have. Kansas had been Harris’ second choice when leaving high school. His former teammate, Adonis Jordan, had become a Jayhawk star. It was Adonis who got to needle his friend now and then on how he, Lucious, had missed his chance to play for a Final Four team.

“I got him this time,” Harris says, laughing. “Don’t think I didn’t let him hear it.”

The surprise was that the 49ers came to Kansas and won. Harris got 24 points. Greenberg got a postgame shower from his team. Then afterward, in the parking lot, he curled an arm around Harris’ shoulder and said: “Thanks for sticking with us.” To which Harris replied: “Coach, I never had a doubt.”

It was Greenberg who had persuaded then-coach Joe Harrington to go after this particular guard. Greenberg thought he could become something special. Harrington wasn’t as sure. He said: “OK. But if he can’t play, this one’s on you.”

Not only can Harris play, but he has grown and matured. Greenberg wonders: “How many others not only lead their team in points but also defend the toughest opponent?”

Yes, things do go wrong, as they did last Saturday when itty-bitty Sam Crawford of New Mexico State burned the much-taller Harris for 22 points in Long Beach’s 77-65 loss. And yes, the 49ers have dropped four of six. So maybe their 15 minutes of fame are up.

Or maybe not. Harris says: “This season has a long way to go. We know how good we can be. We saw that at Kansas. Don’t count this team out. There’s still a long way to go.”

He already has gone far. And the more you know of Lucious Harris, the surer you are. He will go farther.