It’s just past 11 in the morning on a March Tuesday in Mississauga. Snow is in the forecast, because of course, school kids are filing in to consume the Hershey arena with the loudest of high pitched screams, and Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse is sipping away at his large Starbucks coffee with the hopes of getting set for a noon start time.
Perhaps he should have had a sip of whatever Kennedy Meeks has around this time of year. There’s no better time for the 905’s starting center, still basking in the glory of his NCAA national championship title a year ago.
“We the champions till we not the champions,” he says before the game.
Meeks had a special senior year during the 2016-17 season, averaging 12.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and a steal in just over 24 minutes over the span of 40 games, but saved his best for North Carolina’s title run. Over those six games during March Madness, Meeks bumped those numbers to 12.2 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.5 steals while shooting 64.2 percent from the field.
He was absolutely dominant in their Final Four win over Oregon, scoring 25 points on just 13 shots, grabbing 14 rebounds and swatting away three shots. It’s the type of performance you dream of on the national stage, but he wasn’t done just yet.
With the championship game hanging in the balance, Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss tried to attack Meeks off the bounce with his team trailing by three and under 20 seconds remaining. In theory, the plan was sound. Attacking a guy six-foot-nine, 290 pounds (at the time) off the bounce was probably a good idea. Williams-Goss already had 15 for the game, mostly off drives to the rim and Meeks was down to his last foul.
This was the Charlotte, N.C. native’s moment, though. He hung tough, stayed with Williams-Goss the whole way and rejected the shot which led to a fast-break down the other end where Justin Jackson sealed the victory. Now, Meeks has an everlasting memory.
“When you see the commercials, when you see people tag you on Instagram, it’s always a good feeling to know what you left at your college,” Meeks shares. “Glad to be a Tar Heel, glad to be a national champion.”
As humble as the 23-year-old sounds here, the pride with which he speaks seeps through. Now, he spends his free time in the locker room reminding his 905 teammates of just how special that run was. Rookie point guard out of Butler, Kethan Savage, has had to endure his fair share and knows he can’t do anything about it.
“I can’t say too much,” Savage says with a hint of helplessness. “He lets you know for sure, a lot of trash talk.”
Malachi Richardson played for Syracuse before being drafted by the Sacramento Kings and went head-to-head with Meeks in the Final Four of the 2016 edition. He had a respectable outing with 14 points and five boards, but Meeks came away with the last laugh with 15 points, eight rebounds and a 17-point victory.
“I remind him all the time,” Meeks says. “He talks about how good he played that game. I told him it doesn’t matter because I played well, and my team won.”
Stackhouse, a former Tar Heel himself and one who’s known to run his mouth, said he’s been pretty quiet about his former college winning the national title.
“I don’t have to say anything,” Stackhouse says with a big smile before the game. “Kennedy speaks enough for all of us. He’s excited, last couple of times, coming into the ACC tournament, he’s always saying, ‘Them boys look good!’. That’s Kennedy being Kennedy. He’s tied into that just as much as he’s tied into what we’re doing here.”
That he is. Meeks commitment to winning has stood out since joining the Toronto Raptors in Summer League. He’s shed 20 pounds since going undrafted and has been an integral part of the solution in making up for the absence of possible 2018 EuroLeague MVP Edy Tavares. The 905 have gone stretches without a traditional playmaker as well, and Meeks has expanded his game to make plays for others out of both the high and low post.
With the 905 hunting down the Westchester Knicks for top spot in the division to afford themselves a bye in the first round of the playoffs, Meeks shows his intent for another big March by bringing the intensity against the Greensboro Swarm right from the tip.
He scores the 905’s first bucket of the game, swats away L.G. Gill’s layup inside which leads to an Aaron Best transition three, and then settles into the role of distributor, because that’s what the coach wants.
“He’s a threat down in the block, but we ask him to be a facilitator for us,” Stackhouse says. “Make sure he’s looking at his cutters, looking at the weakside options as well, and then if nothing’s there he has the green light to go to work.”
After the team’s hot start, the Swarm come back in a big way and even take the lead in the second quarter. As the 905’s shooting goes cold, Meeks hits the offensive glass, gets put-back after put-back, and holds the fort till Davion Berry and Fuquan Edwin heat up in the fourth quarter.
When it’s all said and done, Meeks has 23 points and 15 rebounds to his name, 10 on the offensive glass.
“Meek was Meek tonight,” Stackhouse says after the game. “Unbelievable on the offensive board, we struggled to score a little bit and he gave us those second-chance opportunities, that was good for us.”
For Meeks, it’s all about the greater good.
“I just want to be there for my team,” he said after the win. “Didn’t play the last game, was a presence early and then just did my job. I’m always a willing passer when I get the ball in the pocket and my teammates were open.”
The box score only shows two assists, but that’s no reflection on how he gets guys moving, searching for space. He could care less about what his individual numbers say, though, it’s always been about the team for him. The 905 are chasing back-to-back titles themselves, and if Meeks can’t help his college team repeat, he’s happy to help his first professional team do so. For him, it feels all the same anyway.
“I think that we’re a close team, one of the closest in the league in my opinion,” he says. “We do such a great job with each other off the court that it transitions to the court. We hang out all the time. Our camaraderie is at an all-time high.”
They’ll travel to the west coast on Thursday for a crucial four-game road trip before one final game at home. There will be plenty more chilling out with teammates, but for as long as North Carolina is in the tournament, there’ll be plenty of trash talking, too.
They won’t care, though, because just like with his college team, for as long as the 905 have something to play for, they know they’ll get everything and more from their man in the middle.
