C.J. Fair waited in the tunnel, stoic as ever. It was his final game in the Carrier Dome and he was the last one to be honored.

At his side were two of his biggest influences. His father Carl, his athletic influence, and his mother Trina, the source of C.J.’s laid-back demeanor. In the rafters hung Carmelo Anthony’s No. 15 — Baltimore’s finest son and one of C.J.’s deciding factors in coming to Syracuse.

It was a big night for him, even if he wasn’t going to show it.

“It was a dream come true,” Trina said. “He is so happy that he came back for his final year.”

***

Carl Fair just wanted his son to play a sport. Any sport.

Carl was a football player first and foremost — he played at both Central State (Ohio) University and New Mexico State — with baseball as his second favorite. When C.J. was 9 years old, Carl pushed him to the latter.

He was a good baseball player — as good as any 9-year-old playing for the first time could be — but his career didn’t last long.

“He told me it was too hot,” Carl said. “The summer he played it was so hot, it was like the hottest summer ever. He was miserable out there.”

It was clear, though, that he was an athlete, and that can help a kid in Baltimore stay out of trouble. C.J.’s group of friends consisted of Nick Faust, now a Maryland forward, and Will and Antonio Barton, currently playing for the Portland Trailblazers and University of Tennessee, respectively.

“A lot of people look at basketball as a way to get out because you see a lot of players from Baltimore have a lot of success,” C.J. said. “You see anything’s possible.

“Basketball kept me out of doing bad activities.”

But for every success story in Baltimore, it seems, there’s a cautionary tale to match.

Carl’s one himself. He said he could have played football anywhere he wanted, but cut class too often in high school and hung with the wrong crowd.

“That’s the main thing,” Carl said. “I didn’t want C.J. to get caught up in the same destructive behaviors that I did.”

Baseball might not have been for him, but basketball sure was.

By the time C.J. turned 13, it was clear there was some sort of future there. He had good genes and he just kept growing and growing.

“Like a weed,” Carl said.

That kept him out of trouble and focused on school. He attended Baltimore City College High School partly for the basketball — head coach Mike Daniel coached Carmelo Anthony at Towson Catholic High School — but also because of its focus on academics.

And any time he fell out of line, basketball was there to reel him back in. He used it to stay out of trouble and follow Anthony, one of his idols, to Syracuse — where he’s now entering his final NCAA Tournament.

“If he wasn’t doing as good in school with the grades, the way I would punish him is I would take away basketball practice,” Trina said. “That was the only thing that worked.”

By his second year at City, he was staying out of trouble, averaging more than 20 points per game and was one of the top players in the basketball hotbed that is the Charm City.

***

C.J. soared in the air to dunk, with his good friend Will Barton leaping to contest it.

These were the kind of open gyms in the summer at City College. Fair and Will were the regulars, but sometimes Antonio Barton and Faust would be there, too.

It was a collection of talent that made C.J. better every day.

But on this day, the landing was awkward and C.J. crumpled on the ground where he lay still for a few minutes.

Eventually, he popped back up and finished the day. On the walk back home, though, it was clear something was wrong.

“He just couldn’t walk no more,” Will Barton said. “We were kind of carrying him.”

City College made a run to the state championship that year, but C.J. watched from the sideline with a torn left ACL, serving as what amounted to a makeshift assistant coach. He wasn’t wired to be the injured star shouting from the bench, but his knowledge was vast for a 17-year-old.

His advice came sparingly during practice, but always resonated.

“It was like God was saying something,” Daniel said.

***

C.J. poked the ball loose and was off in the other direction. The lefty used his right hand to bounce the ball behind his back to his dominant hand.

Brewster Academy was already blowing out Tilton School in a battle of New Hampshire schools, and C.J. took off on his right leg to propel him rather than the scar-covered left. The guard who committed the turnover fouled Fair as he flushed home a dunk. He landed and smiled.

“C.J. just shook his head like, ‘What are you thinking?”’ Brewster head coach Jason Smith said. “Why didn’t you just let me go? Now you’re going to be a YouTube legend.”

C.J. had his explosiveness back, and was reshaping into the player Syracuse assistant coach Rob Murphy expected when he recruited the forward.

He had come to Brewster for a couple of reasons. The first was to play with better talent, and the other was for the medical support provided by the school.

He was rehabbing that knee injury, so Murphy and Carl decided it made sense for him to go up to New Hampshire.

C.J. wasn’t totally sold at first, and his mother took it especially hard. But Will Barton was heading up to Brewster, too, and that made C.J. a little more comfortable.

The summer before heading to Brewster for his senior year, C.J. was back on the court, even if he wasn’t quite up to full strength. His confidence wasn’t all the way back, but that didn’t matter to SU, which had just seen guards Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf successfully recover from similar injuries.

The first time Jim Boeheim actually went up to Brewster to watch C.J. practice, he played terribly.

“He was horrible,” Smith said. “I remember coach Boeheim saying, ‘We understand that you’re a good player,’ and the sense of relief that came over C.J.’s face.”

By the time the regular season started, Fair was who the Orange expected him to be. He and Barton were the two leading scorers on a team that also featured Kansas guard Naadir Tharpe, Minnesota guard Maurice Walker and Big 12 Player of the Year Melvin Ejim.

***

When everyone else’s interest in C.J. started to wane, SU’s picked up.

Syracuse started recruiting him heavily late in his sophomore year of high school. Maryland was in on him, as were Georgetown, Louisville and Kentucky.

But after the injury, the Terrapins and Wildcats backed off. And while Syracuse emerged, Carl couldn’t even tell that the Orange was high on C.J.’s list.

“One day I said, ‘I know you don’t really want to go to Syracuse,’” Carl said, “‘so we’re not going to pursue that interest.’

“That was the first time I’d really seen him get mad at me. He never did that before. He was never dramatic or theatrical.”

It probably should have been obvious that SU appealed to him. He was from Baltimore, and most basketball players around his age in Baltimore worshipped Carmelo Anthony.

“He had every kid wanting to go to Syracuse,” Barton said.

And it just so happened that Fair’s visit coincided with a game between Anthony’s Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns played in the Carrier Dome.

Fair hadn’t even committed yet, but he was already getting a royal welcome from fans who wanted to see him do what SU’s last great Baltimorean did.

“People asked for his autograph,” Trina said. “Me and my daughter was laughing at him just seeing how excited people were about him.”

He got to meet his idol that weekend, and saw the hero’s welcome he got in the exhibition.

“Carmelo I think put a little bit of pressure on him, too,” Carl said, “because Carmelo asked him, ‘Did you like the school?’ And he said, ‘Yeah I love it.’

“And Carmelo said, ‘What are you waiting for?’”

***

It was called Senior Night, but it was really C.J. Fair Night.

White Syracuse headbands were placed on each seat lining the court. A handful of football players in the crowd had put together a sign reading “Ceezus.”

The game that followed — a loss to Georgia Tech — was a disappointing finale to a standout career, but he matched his career-high in scoring.

Behind the scenes, he’s shown a bit more emotion. He did cry after last season’s Final Four loss and gave Derrick Coleman a big hug after the emotional win against Duke in February.

“When I leave here I want to be remembered,” C.J. said. “You want to leave a good impression and be loved when you come back in 5–10 years.”

C.J. stepped to midcourt, framed jersey in hand. He held it to the Carrier Dome roof and cracked a big smile.

Maybe his jersey will be next to Anthony’s one day, but for now he’s enjoying his final run — even if he won’t make it apparent.

Published on March 19, 2014 at 12:48 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2