CARDINALS

U of L's Harrell spends draft night with family

Jessie Nunery
Special to The Courier-Journal
U of L's Montrezl Harrell, #24, smiles after he dunks over Northern Iowa's Nate Buss, #14, as Mangok Mathiang, #12, looked on at the KeyArena in Seattle during the third round of the NCAA tournament.
March 22, 2015

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. -- The setting certainly could have been different Thursday night as former Louisville standout Montrezl Harrell awaited his NBA destination.

Instead of shaking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's hand in Brooklyn, N.Y., when selected by the Houston Rockets with the second pick of the second round (No. 32 overall), Harrell was 10 miles up the road from where he grew up in Leggett, N.C.

"It's been an emotional roller coaster," said Harrell, who expected to be a first-round selection. "I'm blessed to be placed in the organization I'm in. They're going to get somebody who is going to give his all from Day One. Having my family around was a huge support with everything that went on. I needed them in my corner."

Montrezl spent draft night with his paternal grandmother, Mamie Harrell, and not far from the home of his maternal grandmother, Janice Bellamy. Neither Mamie Harrell or Bellamy are in great health these days.

So it was imperative that Montrezl shared the biggest night of his life with his special ladies.

"I knew he would be something," Bellamy said, not daring to mask a bright smile. "I treated him like a baby, and I coddled him like a baby. I was a school bus driver, and he used to ride the bus with me. I didn't want anything to happen to him."

Harrell was joined by family members, friends and coaches inside a small, one-story restaurant ballroom at the Four Seasons in Rocky Mount. It wasn't the multimillion-dollar facility that the night's top picks enjoyed, but the Four Seasons was perfect for Harrell, who had exactly who he wanted around him.

Mamie Harrell, who is partially blind, sat comfortably at the family's table and took in her grandson's big night. She recalled a day in front of her home when Montrezl was younger and asked her, 'Do you think I can be a professional basketball player?'

"You can be anything you want to be," Mamie Harrell told her grandson that day. "That was his dream."

For a night that meant so much to Harrell, he mostly carried the easy-going, off-court demeanor that made him a favorite of Louisville fans for the past three years.

Wearing a slim-fit gray, three-piece suit with a crisp white dress shirt and Rick Pitino-esque white loafers, Harrell relaxed for most of the first half of the draft.

He smiled for pictures with family.

He hung out with friends and ate food from a buffet table.

He even played the role of computer technician, at one point trying to figure out why the draft's wireless connection wasn't showing up on a projection screen.

While others were nervous about the connection at times, Harrell displayed humor.

"Sheeesh!," he yelled out to the laughter of those around him.

When one team made a controversial pick early in the first round, Harrell swallowed some ice and said loud enough for everyone to hear, 'Somebody's GM is getting fired tonight!"

It was the Montrezl everyone in the room has known, the same one his mother, Selena Harrell, was happy to see embraced the way he was last season when the family visited Louisville and visited a restaurant full of adoring fans.

Danny Ward, who coached Harrell at North Edgecombe High for three seasons, said he visited Louisville for a game and watched as his former player took a picture with every willing fan.

"He is very family-oriented," Ward said. "He has always been close to his family."

That family was there as the evening grew long, the waiting intensified and the room became quieter. With every pick toward the end of the first round that Silver announced, cameras turned toward Harrell in anticipation of capturing the moment.

It finally came — later than expected — but when it did, Mamie Harrell's thoughts from earlier in the evening were confirmed.

"I'm really proud," Mamie Harrell said. "I always told him to keep his head up. I know he is going to get what is coming to him."