Story by Blake Richardson
UNC senior guard Kane Ma felt his eyes go warm with tears as he heard the same speech he’d been told since he was a freshman. Sure, he was good enough to play UNC varsity basketball, but the roster had no room.
Ma practiced with the varsity last summer, but as transfers, commits and walk-ons joined at the last minute, his spot slipped away. What about playing college basketball, the dream dancing in his head since middle school? This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be.
“I would love for you to still be around the program and play on JV,” assistant coach Hubert Davis told him. “I know that’s not what you want to do. I know that’s not your dream to play JV four years in a row, but I would love to have you… I’ll give you as much time as you want, just think about it.”
The next day, Davis’ phone rang.
Ma had no way of knowing that four months later, his chance would come. That soon, he would play in games he grew up ogling over on TV in Greensboro. All he knew was that he loved basketball too much to walk away. Ma poured hours of practice into the sport, fueled by a passion that burned brighter with every obstacle, every ‘no.’ While the apparent hopelessness stung, pain couldn’t crush his spirit. He only knew what he needed to tell Davis — yes. He would return to JV.
One year was all he needed.
‘He discovered a passion’
Ma stepped outside into a cold rain that he only noticed for how odd it looked over his beaming face.
Then a freshman, Ma was leaving a philosophy test when he saw the email from Davis, announcing the roster. Ma scrolled through the list and — there it was. Kane Ma. He made the team.
An obvious choice for Davis. Just look at how Ma seamlessly wove around the court with his speed and ball handling, not even slightly slowed by dribbling. More importantly, an impeccable work ethic bolstered his talent.
“The first five minutes I saw him, I knew that I wanted him on the JV team,” Davis said.
That didn’t happen often. Ma was used to fighting to prove his worth. First, he was cut from the middle school team. Basketball had been how he exercised and made friends. But not anymore. Ma got serious. He shot baskets in his driveway for hours, studied players he admired and drilled dribbling in his garage.
Still not enough. As a junior, Ma was cut from Northwest Guilford High School’s varsity team. He wanted to play in college, and failure hardened his resolve. Good enough wouldn’t cut it, he decided. He had to be the best.
That meant he needed to leave. Ma had the talent to play at Northwest Guilford, but no recognition. His thoughts circled around transferring, and that summer he found a destination — New Garden Friends School. This was Ma’s chance. One last door to collegiate play.
For one month, Dan Ma wrestled with whether to allow his son to transfer, concerned about private school expenses and the risk his son would regret switching schools in his final year. But Kane’s determination compelled him.
“It’s not too hard for me to make that decision,” Dan Ma said. “He knew a lot of the kids. He discovered a passion.”
The move paid off; as a senior Ma earned scholarship offers from several Division Two schools. But he was also accepted to North Carolina, the right academic fit, leaving Ma conflicted. Until he learned about UNC’s JV team.
He was sold.
On JV, Ma met players as motivated as he was. Each day, he practiced in the Smith Center in awe of his teammates, bound by a shared desire to play for the team whose banners adorned the rafters above them.
But dreaming was the easy part.
Contagious tenacity
The thudding basketball’s echo bounced off the empty seats in the Smith Center as Ma and junior guard Caleb Ellis eyed each other on the court.
They were the only JV players invited to work out with the varsity — Ma’s second summer practicing with the Tar Heels. From the end of May to Aug. 1, that entailed mornings lifting weights for two hours and two hours of pickup in the afternoon.
Ma and Ellis returned home exhausted, but they wouldn’t rest yet. Instead, they returned to the Smith Center to play one-on-one for two more hours.
As Ellis blew by for a basket, something shifted in Ma, determination ignited behind his brown eyes. No one was watching, nothing was at stake, but that didn’t matter.
“If I would score, it’s almost like he would take it personally,” Ellis said. “I mean, not like he’s gonna fight me after, but he’d come back at me as hard as he could and try to score right back on me and let me know he’s there, he’s ready to compete.”
Ma was the same on JV. What struck Davis was how many hours his point guard spent in the gym. A team captain junior year, Ma did the bulk of his leading through his tenacity on the court — how he battled for every basket.
“It’s contagious,” Ellis said. “You see him playing hard, it makes you want to play hard, and I think a lot of my teammates who played with him last year as well would agree he brought a lot of energy.”
Proving he belonged
Ma was walking through the quad in December when his phone started ringing. Hubert Davis. That was surprising. He normally didn’t call Ma in the morning.
Sophomore guard Seventh Woods was injured with a stress fracture — a hole in the roster. Davis wasn’t sure if the opening was for games or just practices, temporary or permanent. But the Tar Heels needed a point guard.
They needed Ma.
“I could feel it over the phone, just his smile through the phone,” Davis said.
Ma clicked with the players as soon as he started practicing, almost like he was there all along. Davis said Ma’s new teammates were drawn to his personality — quiet yet competitive, confident yet humble. Besides, they knew how hard Ma worked to wear that jersey.
One week later, the coaches decided there was no ambiguity about Ma’s place on the team — it was obvious. He belonged on varsity.
“I couldn’t imagine the team being without Kane,” Davis said. “That’s how much he’s been a part of this year’s varsity team.”
On varsity, players are stronger, the game is faster and the demands are countless, starter or bench player. A walk-on must exceed expectations just to keep up.
But that’s why Davis was confident in Ma — North Carolina’s first Asian-American player since Daniel Bolick walked on in the 2010 season. It’s easy to find a JV player with varsity aspirations. But someone who can give the effort required of that level?
“I have always thought and believed in myself that I was good enough…,” Ma said. “You get that confidence from putting in the work.”
Living his dream
Ma never heard his name, but it surrounded him.
With North Carolina’s 83-66 win over Notre Dame on Feb. 12 all but guaranteed by a hefty lead and draining clock, Ma subbed in with other bench players. As he grabbed a pass at the top of the arc and steered around defenders under UNC’s basket, fans erupted in chanting.
“Kane Ma. Kane Ma. Kane Ma.”
Ma learned what happened afterward. On the court, all the shouting blends together, enveloping Ma in a deafening hum. He has learned to ignore it — wrapped up in the contest he spent years striving to compete in.
At the JV team’s 85-59 win against Vance Granville Community College on Feb. 19, the loudest sound in the Smith Center was squeaking basketball shoes. Even that faded at halftime, when Ma emerged from the near empty stands in a gray UNC t-shirt to take jump shots on the unguarded basket.
Ma attends every JV game he can, sometimes sending encouraging messages to the team group text he never left. Because he’s still one of them. The point guard riling up the Smith Center crowd is the same one who shot hoop after hoop alone for hours.
But he is done biding his time.
I love this article, Blakey! So inspiring & very well-written.