About a week before he was paralyzed, Joe Kay dunked in my face.
Kay was a 6-foot-6 standout basketball player for Tucson High School in 2004. I played for rival Buena High in Sierra Vista. Really, though, we were the Raiders to their Broncos, our victories few and far between.
Still, toward the end of what had been a rough senior season, we were bidding for a road upset late in the fourth quarter when Tucson began a two-on-one fast break — with me as the lone defender. The Tucson guard lofted the ball toward the rim for Kay, and I thought I could reach it. Instead, I just ended up on the wrong end of a poster slam.
Upset bid over.
One week later, Kay had another memorable dunk, this one a breakaway in the closing seconds to help Tucson beat an even bigger rival, Salpointe Catholic.
But it’s what happened next that had me thinking about Kay when Arizona coach Sean Miller on Wednesday night decried another court-storming against his team, this time at the Coors Events Center in Boulder.
As the Tucson fans rushed the court on that February day 12 years ago, Kay was knocked to the ground and trampled. He suffered a torn carotid artery and a stroke, and he was paralyzed on the right side of his body.
While Miller envisions a scenario in which an Arizona player will someday punch a fan in self-defense — and that surely would be an ugly postgame scene — I always think of darker possibilities when a mass of students hurriedly jams into a hardwood box that is 94 feet by 50.
I think of Kay.
“Granted, I was small potatoes, a high school player in Tucson,” Kay told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” in 2013, “but it seems nothing was learned.”
I admired Kay when I played against him. He could leap out of the gym — he had signed to play volleyball at Stanford — and had an unrelenting motor. And it was all taken away for a few fleeting moments of, well, what exactly? Fun?
Thankfully, Kay regained the ability to walk and graduated from Stanford before pursuing a graduate degree at Arizona State, but many of his physical gifts were snatched away that day.
I fear Kay’s ordeal will be repeated if the NCAA, or individual schools and conferences, don’t make a greater effort to keep players, coaches and spectators safe.
This season, veteran Des Moines Register reporter Randy Peterson suffered a fractured fibula and tibia when he was knocked to the ground by court-storming Iowa State students after the Cyclones’ victory over Iowa.
Iowa State’s response left plenty to be desired.
“I hate that Randy got hurt,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm told the Register. “That’s terrible. But, my thing, I was trying to go see my wife, to be honest with you. It was a great moment. That’s part of college basketball.”
Risk of serious injury after a game shouldn’t be part of any college sport.
Miller has a fair suggestion. Allow just a few moments for the losing team to leave the court before fans pile onto it. I get it, some of the spontaneity of the moment would be taken away. But, really, isn’t that a small price to pay to curb potentially tragic incidents?
After all, I’d rather get dunked on 100 more times than not see us learn from what happened to Joe Kay.
Nick Kosmider: 303-954-1516, nkosmider @denverpost.com or @nickkosmider
