A UNC basketball player shares the real story about Career Night.
In his 12th season as a professional, Harrison Barnes is a full-time starter for the tough Sacramento Kings (25-18), yet he frequently has comparatively low stat figures. However, in just the past week, the 31-year-old UNC basketball player has emerged as one of the league’s most reliable basket-getters.
Three days prior, on Thursday, Barnes had scored 32 points in a 122-107 victory at home against the Atlanta Hawks. Now, on the road, Barnes scored a career-high 39 points to lead the Kings to a thrilling 134-133 victory against the Golden State Warriors (19-23), the team that selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft and awarded him with a championship ring (2015).
In his game-high 40 minutes on the court, he hit an explosive 14 for 24 from the field, 7 for 12 from beyond the arc, and 4 for 4 at the charity stripe. He also scored four points in the last three minutes of play, including a crucial block and rebound with less than 20 seconds remaining.
But Harrison Barnes’s performance wasn’t necessarily any more significant than the nights when he provides innumerable screens, secondary assists, and other contributions that don’t show up in the box score. Right now, he’s averaging 11.7 points and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 41.0 percent from beyond the arc through 43 games this season.
The 2010–12 UNC basketball standout told the reporters after the game that, despite his high touch total and purposefully open appearances, he was only interested in playing hoops. “Coach may occasionally sketch a play or do other similar things. However, you know, you shoot it if you’re open.
You can frequently run up and down for five minutes without seeing the ball at all. Alternatively, you can get eight shots by running up and down for five minutes. Therefore, I believe that regardless of how it’s divided up, you simply remain confined, remain ready, and be ready to shoot for the duration of a season.We’re all collaborating together.”
One game into a seven-game road trip, Barnes and the Kings will take on the Dallas Mavericks (24–20) on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET.
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