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Two minutes and two seconds into the exhibition against Pfeiffer, Charlotte point guard DiJuan Harris leaps over the scorers table, into a green and gold folding chair and onto the concrete floor.
Now, you could suggest to Harris not to dive after a loose ball in a game that doesn't count, a game the 49ers will win 122-85. You could remind him that since he is the only experienced point guard on the roster he might leave the diving to somebody else.
Harris would courteously listen, might even call you sir. He does that, call people sir. Then he would again go body-first to the hardwood or concrete.
“I'm full of energy,” says Harris. “I'm an energy guy.”
His background might explain. The 49ers did not recruit Harris. Harris recruited the 49ers.
After graduating from Victory Christian High, he played for a season at Hillsborough (Fla.) junior college. A Charlotte native, he is extremely close to his family – mom, grandmother, father and brothers – and he wanted to come home. So he walked on to the basketball team.
“I saw myself as equal with everybody on the floor,” says Harris. “The only difference was that they were on scholarship and I was not. But I had a PhD – I was poor, hungry and driven.”
And soon he was on scholarship. And then he was a starter.
Because junior Michael Gerrity elected not to play this season, Harris is the only point guard with experience. Charles Dewhurst, an athletic 6-foot-5 sophomore, has been moved from shooting guard to back-up point guard.
But it's Harris' beat to which the 49ers move.
“People don't determine whether you're a leader or not,” says Harris, who is listed at 5-9 but insists he's 5-10. “When you're the point guard, it's something you step into. And I believe I can lead this team to a lot of big victories.”
Watching him, you wish the court were softer. He bounced off the scorer's table pinball like; he dove or was knocked to the court at least four times. Once he did not immediately get up.
Airborne while leading a one-man fast break late in the first half, Harris hit or was hit by a grounded Pfeiffer player. He landed hard and grabbed one leg, and then the other, writhing in pain.
After running over to check on him, Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz ran to the Pfeiffer huddle – nobody does this – and yelled, apparently at coach Dave Davis, who was an assistant on Lutz's staff when Lutz was coach at Pfeiffer.
The contact did not appear intentional.
But, like players, some coaches take exhibitions seriously.
Harris finished the first half on his back next to the 49ers bench. He limped to the locker room. When the second half began, he again was sprinting. He finished with 13 assists and 11 points.
Harris is pure voltage. He goes so fast so frequently that you expect to see sparks in his wake. After the game, he again ended up on the other side of the scorers table. He walked into the bleachers to slap hands with fans.
