Don’t look away now. This is the guy who relishes the spotlight. This is the guy who invited himself to an NCAA Tournament press conference. This is the guy who impersonated Larry Fedora with the man himself standing right there. This is the guy whose dance moves are rivaled only by his basketball skills.
And this year, the junior wing might have been “the guy.” The one to have the breakout year that the North Carolina men’s basketball team will need to fill the shoes of its graduated seniors.
He might have been.
On Oct. 11, Pinson’s sense of humor drew laughs at UNC men’s basketball media day. But 10 days later, the team announced Pinson had broken a bone in his right foot and would be sidelined indefinitely. He had suffered the same injury in his left foot twice before, most recently during his first year in Chapel Hill.
Among all of Pinson’s lighthearted moments at media day — before he could have imagined the unlucky fate that befell him days later — his serious comments on his first-year injury are haunting.
“I felt like I was starting to get it my freshman year, and then (the injury) was a big step back,” Pinson said.
“You can’t go for that long and then come back and play in our system, because we are going up and down and everything is happening so fast.”
For Pinson, this is another big step back.
