New Chapter and Verse

A drawing. A name. Initials. A cross.

Those are ordinary tattoos.

Oklahoma State freshman JamesOn Curry has what looks like a paragraph on his left arm.

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth, you will again bring me up. -- Psalms 71:20.

It has been little more than a year since Curry seemingly ruined his career.

He was Tobacco Road’s native son, literally working the tobacco fields beyond his family’s door as he grew into the leading scorer in North Carolina high school basketball history -- a history that includes David Thompson, James Worthy and Michael Jordan.

But on a February day in 2004, Curry became one of more than 60 Alamance County high school students arrested in a drug sting, facing six felony charges after he twice sold marijuana to an undercover officer.

His scholarship to North Carolina evaporated in, yes, a puff of smoke, when Coach Roy Williams rescinded it after Curry pleaded guilty. He spent the rest of his senior year banned from the Eastern Alamance High campus in Mebane, unable even to attend his own prom.

When Connie Curry heard a crashing sound a few days after the arrest, it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t an accident on the highway outside their home.

It was her son in his room, destroying the souvenirs of a career.

“It looked like he had torn everything off the wall, everything but his track awards, and I just said, ‘Oh my God, JamesOn,’ and grabbed him and told him everything would be all right,” Connie Curry said. “I guess he just thought it was the end of the world.”

His world has been reborn.

When Oklahoma State plays Arizona in the Sweet 16 tonight, Curry will start alongside four players who reached the Final Four last season.

In the first two rounds, when the Cowboys wavered, Curry, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard with the ballhandling and decision-making skills of a senior point guard, pulled them through, contributing 31 points and seven assists.

“It’s a blessing in disguise, everything that happened,” Curry said, adding he no longer dwells on what-ifs. “I can’t go against God’s plan. I’m thankful for this opportunity.”

Curry, who started 14 of the last 15 games, said he was not dealing drugs in high school, but describes himself as what his father calls “a naive country boy.”

“I got the drugs for the guy,” he said. “[But] you can’t go around pointing fingers, or with your head down. I hold my head high. I know our God is forgiving.”

At Eastern Alamance High, where TV trucks filled the parking lot and the New York Times and Washington Post called after Curry’s arrest, Oklahoma State T-shirts are now “very, very prevalent,” Principal JoAnne Hayes said.

“He’s a great kid who made a mistake,” said Hayes, who has known Curry since he was born.

“It was a very traumatic event for our school. I’m very thankful that Coach Eddie Sutton understands people can make a mistake and will give an individual that second chance. Many, many people called me. [Oklahoma State assistant coaches] Sean Sutton and James Dickey were the only ones who flew in and talked to me. I really respect that they took the time to learn more about the circumstances.”

After pleading guilty, Curry was sentenced to three years of probation and 200 hours of community service.

“Back home, picking up trash in an orange vest, I felt like a criminal,” he said.

After he arrived in Stillwater last summer, he completed his community service at a local church.

“Mainly painting and cleaning,” he said.

Eddie Sutton has had success taking transfers and last-chance players -- well-traveled guard Tony Allen from last season’s team was one -- and believes he made the right call on Curry.

“A lot of people were critical of the fact we took him,” Sutton said. “Sean and James Dickey went back there for a week and talked to people. What he did was out of character, and he certainly paid for it.

“He’s just a wonderful young man who made a horrible mistake.”

Before Oklahoma State approved the decision, Curry had to sit down with school President David Schmidly, who gave Bob Knight his second chance when Schmidly was president at Texas Tech.

“Our president grilled him,” Sutton said. “He told JamesOn, ‘We’re giving you a second chance. Don’t mess it up.’ ”

Curry’s boyhood dream of playing for the Tar Heels is gone. But he still watches them, and keeps a note Williams, the coach who withdrew his scholarship, sent after he landed at Oklahoma State, wishing him well.

“It meant a lot,” Curry said. “It showed he wasn’t thinking I was a terrible kid.”

Someday, he will be remembered for more than a February day, but not yet.

At Texas A&M;, he noticed white squares of paper in the student section.

“At first I thought they said something like, ‘Beat Oklahoma State,’ ” Curry said. “It was a picture of me, like ‘Wanted by the Oklahoma Police Department.’ ”

The Baylor crowd was on him too.

“I was like, ‘Isn’t this a Christian school?’ They said, ‘God might forgive you. We don’t.’

“Whenever I would think, ‘Man, what do I do now?’ I would read the Bible,” he said. “Some people were saying, ‘He shouldn’t touch a ball. He should go to jail. He’s a menace to society’ ... .”

Curry was thumbing through a Bible not long after his arrest when he first saw the words he now wears on his arm.

From the depths of the earth, you will again bring me up. ...

“I saw that instantly,” Curry said. “I thought, man, this is me.”