Granberry and Hankerson

[whyoh]

Granberry, Hankerson reunite at Wyoming following victory, loss : Wyoming

Charles Hankerson Jr. and Jerron Granberry did it together.

After the final buzzer rang and the state champion Coral Reef Barracudas flooded the court, best friends found each other on the hardwood. Hankerson, who had scored 27 points and added nine rebounds and five assists in the victory, ripped off his jersey to reveal a white T-shirt, a simple message scribbled in black ink across the front:

We did it! State Champs 08-09

Hankerson wrote the declaration during the bus ride to the arena hours before.

They had, indeed, done it. Led by Hankerson and Granberry, Coral Reef won its first basketball state championship. They toppled No. 1 Olympia, all while climbing out of an improbable 15-3 first-quarter hole.

The deficit, of course, hardly mattered. Both Hankerson and Granberry knew the state title was inevitable -- despite the rankings, the predictions and the trophy case slowly gathering dust at their school.

This was something they had been building toward for years. The two had met when Granberry was 6, brought together by high school basketball coach fathers that had started as city rivals, then eventually become friends.

Hankerson estimates that their houses were a six-minute drive apart, and he can't be far off considering how many times both kids made the trip.

At age 14, they joined the same AAU team, coached by Charles Hankerson Sr. Though they wore the same jersey, 'J' and 'Hank' treated each practice like a personal duel.

"They both got to a point where in practice they wanted to guard one another, to make sure that they both were ready," Hankerson Sr. said. "They didn’t want to take the easy way out by letting someone that they knew they were better than guard them.”

Next was high school -- and a state title.

“There’s nothing that we can’t do together,” Granberry said.

Moments after the 69-60 victory, the team’s leaders found each other on the court. They hugged, then kept hugging. Once they let go, they knew, their career together would be over.

“I love you,” Granberry told Hankerson, his little brother not by blood, but by ball. “I’m proud of you.”

Though he had one more season left at Coral Reef, the moment was not lost on 'Hank.'

“It was just very emotional. We had worked so hard pretty much our whole lives. I knew it was going to be his last game,” Hankerson said. “I thought it was going to be our last game together, ever.”

***

After his father died, Jerron Granberry didn’t want to think about basketball -- or anything else.

Throughout most of his son's college career, Leslie Granberry’s condition slowly deteriorated, the result of brain surgeries to combat a worsening dementia. Finally, on Nov. 4, 2012, Jerron’s most dedicated coach passed away.......