Eron Harris won't quit on professional basketball dreams

Inside an office deep in the bowels of Breslin Center Thursday, Eron Harris is sitting in an office chair with his hand resting on his right knee.

He points to a scar and rubs his hand along the inside of his leg.

“This swelling is almost all the way down. I got this area right here that still needs to go down,” he said as he kicked his left leg out to compare, “but you can see it’s not too much different than this knee.”

It’s three months to the day since Michigan State’s senior guard fell to the court in his home state of Indiana, clutching his right leg, screaming in pain in front of a hushed crowd and his stunned teammates inside Mackey Arena.

He came into the Purdue game that February day with aspirations of leading the Spartans to an upset win in his final trip to West Lafayette.

He left on a stretcher.

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Weeks after the season ended, Harris finally Googled “Eron Harris injury.” He was ready to see a replay of what put his right leg in a brace and prematurely ended his collegiate career.

When the video popped up, in all capital letters, the title read “VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.”

Harris gets the ball on the right wing, hesitates, then drives the hoop, jumping into the air and smashing into Purdue big man, 7’ 2”, 290-pound, Isaac Haas. The ball never hit iron and Harris was on his way to the ground.

“I bumped into probably the biggest guy in college basketball going in for a layup,” Harris said with a slight grin. “His mass bumped back my mass, and I came down on my right heel. My leg hyperextended. I just felt it go backwards.”

His ACL was torn, his PCL was partially ripped, and he dislocated the joint in his right knee cap. It didn’t take long for the realization to kick in – his career in East Lansing was over.

Harris didn’t know if he ever wanted to watch that video. Looking back, he said, he wanted some closure. Seeing the tears in Miles Bridges’ eyes and the concern on the face of his “brothers” was almost too much to bear.

“I just thought about my career and came to tears,” Harris said. “I wiped them away real quick, and I was good. I was by myself. It was my moment. I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in here.”

Over the next month, Harris became another coach on the sideline. The moment he was carted off the floor at Purdue, he started thinking ahead. The moment he threw a white towel over his head as he faded into the tunnel that day, his focus drifted to “What can I do to help this team?”

MSU head coach Tom Izzo praised Harris over the final month of the season. He liked his leadership, his honesty and his maturity. He rewarded his senior with a sendoff that won’t be forgotten around here for many years.

Marveda Saunders, Harris’ mother, surprised her son when she was announced as the national anthem singer on senior night. With crutches resting under both arms, Harris couldn’t control his emotions when she started to sing. Teammate Kenny Goins consoled him throughout the song. The rest of his teammates joined in after the final note.

The surprises didn’t stop there.

With 11.2 seconds remaining and the Spartans up by 10 on Wisconsin, Harris was inserted into the game. With a bulky, black knee brace on and the crowd chanting his name, he limped to center court where he waved to the crowd before lowering himself down and kissing the Spartan logo.

“I feel like I am going to really appreciate it 10 or 20 years down the line,” Harris said of that late February day. “I have no words for it. I’m just thankful and humble.”

What made the moment even more special was the thought Izzo put into it, he said. He and his coach butted heads a few times during the season. After his injury, Harris said, he found a new connection with Izzo.

“He didn’t have to do that,” Harris said of the senior day surprises. “(My injury) brought us closer together. When I got hurt, he saw how the team rallied around me. After that, he saw a different side of me and appreciated me a little more.

“I appreciated him more.”

Wearing a grey MSU sweatshirt with a logo from the 2015 Final Four, green gym shorts and his headphones around his neck, Harris was getting a much-deserved day off from his rehab. He’d done his most excruciating session to date the day before.

The days in the trainer’s room have been taxing. He points back to the first time he bent his knee two weeks after the initial tear. A lot of tears and pain have gone into his workouts. In the end, he knows they will be worth it if he ever wants to see the court again.

He is not giving himself a deadline when it comes to his knee. Doctors say it will take 6 to 8 months to regain the strength and mobility he lost. He has time. His tentative timetable is set for December. Right now he is focusing on not doing too much. He shoots free throws and flat-footed shots inside the practice gym at Breslin but always has a trainer nearby to tell him when he is overdoing it.

In early May, Harris became the first person in his immediate family to walk across the stage as a college graduate. The key word is walk. He hopes he doesn’t have to use his sociology degree anytime soon.

He still dreams about playing in the NBA. He goes as far as calling himself a pro.

“I know I am an NBA player,” he boasts. “That has always been my dream. I’m confident.”

He knows it will be an uphill battle, but he points to his unorthodox journey to MSU as an example of “making it.”

He barely made the freshman team in high school and didn’t make the varsity team until he was a junior. He didn’t receive any offers to play basketball at the college level until his senior year. Most players make their decision during their junior season.

Mid-major programs finally came calling, and he almost signed on the dotted line to play basketball at Dayton. Then West Virginia showed up at the last minute. Harris left Morgantown in 2014 and transferred to MSU where he became a shutdown defender and a clutch shooter.

“The progression was a long one,” Harris said. “My story isn’t done being written. My knee is just another thing I have gone through.”

Harris hasn’t hired an agent and is open to the idea of playing overseas. All he knows is he wants to play and support his family. He said it’s the least he could do for the guidance and love they have shown him.

Right now, he says, he is dealing with a setback. And just like when he broke his wrist in the eighth grade, he cried, wiped his tears, sucked it up and moved on.

The plan hasn’t changed.

“I won’t quit. I don’t quit,” he said with a smile. “I gave it my all. I made it through.

“That won’t stop.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @CodyTucker_LSJ.