PITTSBURGH – Last week, David Jean-Baptiste mentally went back to that train station bench in Golden Glades, Florida.
He remembered all the nights he didn’t have money for the ride north to Pompano Beach and would have to sneak on the train. The nights he would miss said train entirely and sit there, praying he could find a way to make the 25-mile trip back home.
As the sixth-year senior guard absorbed all the adulation and national acclaim that came from making one of the most iconic shots in the history of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball, he realized why all of that mattered.
“I know a lot of people may ask, and it’s the question I asked myself, even before that moment happened,” he said. “I would ask, ‘Why does it feel like everything is happening to me?’ And now it’s like, ‘This is why.’ Now everything is flowing the way it’s supposed to. It’s why I just stayed on that boat, never getting too high, never too flow. Just staying afloat, and I think now that’s what I’m doing, embracing every moment and just embracing the journey.”
So after Sunday night’s NCAA tournament selection show, Jean-Baptiste stood on the McKenzie Arena floor where he played so many games, soaking it all in. The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder posed with three little girls who held balloons that spelled out “DJB.” He spoke with everyone: white, Black; young, old.