NUGGETS’ HARRIS ALSO STARRED IN FOOTBALL
“Gary’s strong. He’s fast, he’s got the football feet, athleticism.”
Tom Izzo had Gary Harris on his shortlist.
The legendary Michigan State basketball coach desperately wanted to earn a commitment from Harris when he was an elite two-sport athlete at Hamilton Southeastern in Fishers, Ind., and he pleaded with his wife, Lupe, to take the recruiting trip with him.
“You’ve got to come down with me. We’ve got to go to a football game,” Izzo told Lupe.
They hopped aboard a small King Air plane, and soon afterward, the skies opened up during the flight and it began pouring.
“‘We get to the game,’ I say, ‘Come on, we’ve got to do this for our future!' ” Izzo said. “Because I knew he was really good.”
So, too, did many others. Indiana University made the trek. As did Purdue, where the retired jersey of Harris’ mother, Joy Holmes-harris, hangs in Mackey Arena.
A handful of other Power 5 schools were also interested in landing the steely two-way guard and standout wide receiver.
“I got my whole family there, it’s pouring, we’re standing by the fence and all the sudden my phone rings,” Izzo recounted. “It’s Joy, his mother. She goes, ‘Coach, you really came?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ She goes, ‘You’re sitting out in the rain?’ I said, ‘Yeah, where are you?’ She goes, ‘Well, Big G is there, but us women, we don’t get our hair wet.’ I said, ‘Well, my wife does.’… I think that’s what got him!”
What first put Harris on Izzo’s radar? The coach said it was his natural toughness and an agile frame that, even as a teenager, translated from the football field to the basketball court.
“Not a lot of shooters guard people,” Izzo said. “That’s why I loved him.”
It’s now what makes Harris such a critical piece of the Nuggets’ title-contending puzzle — a stabilizing force whose defensive impact can have a cascading effect on the rest of the team.
It’s almost impossible for Harris’ teammates to talk about his defense without mentioning his other sport.