The Painful March Joy of J’Wan Roberts — No. 1 Houston’s Heart & Soul Opens Up On What It Really Takes to Play Through Injuries For His Teammates

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The needle is the worst. The big needle that needs to be stuck in J’Wan Roberts’ right knee to drain it out just about every single week now is what is allowing the University of Houston basketball team’s heart and soul to keep playing for his teammates. So J’Wan Roberts keeps going through it without complaint. Again and again and again and. . .

But damn right, it hurts.

“Yeah, it definitely is,” Roberts tells PaperCity when I ask if those now weekly needle drains of the excess fluid that builds up in his injured right knee are the worst part of his relentless fight to keep playing. “And it really hurts with the needle. It definitely do hurt.”

Roberts shrugs his shoulders. He’s talking in the locker room after No. 1 Houston’s 82-59 second half runaway over Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. Roberts goes down hard again in this game, landing awkwardly after attempting to block a shot, hurting another part of the right leg that’s been barking at him in pain almost all season. Crumpling onto the court for a moment. In even more pain. Roberts will only play seven minutes in this game, but his impact on this now 30-3 Houston team cannot be overstated.

For there is no way any of the other players on Kelvin Sampson’s UH team can look at Roberts and not be inspired. And often not just be left shaking their head at just how damn tough the big man from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands is.

“Yeah, it hurt,” Roberts says, patiently explaining to a middle aged sports writer who’s never had his knee drained what the experience is like. “Taking all that out of my knee. . .”

Roberts is not complaining. Far from it. He’s pushing to keep going. For his teammates. Talking to him, you get the idea he’d play in Saturday night’s Big 12 Tournament Title Game against No. 2 seed Iowa State (5 pm on ESPN) if the choice becomes his.

“I don’t do this for myself,” Roberts tells PaperCity. “I do this for my teammates. I never try to put myself above my teammates. Never ever. I can go into a game and not score the ball at all. That’s not my main focus. Seeing my teammates succeed. Seeing them get on a loose ball. Seeing them get a crazy rebound. Seeing them hyped. Happy to play basketball.

“That brings a feeling in me. It don’t matter what injury that I have. Or that I’m going through it. I just try to fight through it the best I can. And I’m going to give it my all even if it hurts that much.

“Shit, it is what it is. I’m doing it for my teammates. And I’m doing it for my brothers. That’s really all that matters at the end of the day.”

Brothers before pain.

If you’re not moved by that J’Wan Roberts explanation, you may not have a pulse. The drive to play through pain for something bigger than yourself has rarely been articulated more powerfully. Roberts UH teammates are certainly moved just by watching what the power forward goes through to keep playing. And most of them don’t even see the half of it.

Senior guard Ryan Elvin, who’s known and played with Roberts as long as anyone on this team, sees plenty of Reggie Chaney and Justin Gorham in what Roberts is doing. Chaney is the tougher than tough forward who tragically died suddenly last August at age 23, just months after playing his last game for Sampson. Chaney is someone who means so much to this Houston program, someone who is held in reverence. Someone who’s No. 32 these Cougars all wear in a patch on their uniforms.

So when Elvin evokes Chaney’s name, it’s meaningful.

“Reggie Chaney, Justin Gorham — all those dudes are tough,” Elvin tells PaperCity. “Fabian White. All those dudes at his position. That’s who J’Wan’s followed and learned from. . .

“But the way (J’Wan’s) playing through pain. He’s one of the toughest dudes I’ve ever been around for sure.”

“I’m doing it for my teammates. And I’m doing it for my brothers. That’s really all that matters at the end of the day.” — UH forward J’Wan Roberts on playing hurt.

J’Wan Roberts’ Near Willis Reed Moment

Even the most advanced basketball analytics cannot measure the impact seeing Roberts fight through so much to just keep playing has on this Houston team. But you can be certain that it’s no coincidence that these Cougars — down to only seven healthy players for the majority of this game against a talented 23 win Texas Tech team — seem to be so much greater than their individual parts.

When J’Wan Roberts returns to start the second half against Texas Tech — despite having ice tapped to the side of his right leg for much of the first half — UH assistant coach Hollis Price almost sees Willis Reed. Still moving with a noticeable hobble to his step, Roberts hits a hook shot and sets up two Emanuel Sharp threes with the kind of big man passing he’s known for before sitting down for good with 16:53 remaining.

“It sets an example for everybody,” Price tells PaperCity. “Him just coming back in for those few possessions that he did come back in, it boosted all our guys up. That energy. Those two assists that he got and I think he scored a bucket as well, that’s something we needed out of him.

“And it got everybody going. And we just kept going from there. We followed his lead.”

J’Wan’s lead kick started a 33-6 run that left the Red Raiders completely obliterated — as flattened as if they’d been run over by a giant bolder. Suddenly Texas Tech’s chances of winning were as real as a palace photo of Kate Middleton. The example of the toughest college basketball player in America helps turn a 37-37 tie into a 70-43 Houston bulge.

“He’s not complaining about nothing. So we sure can’t be complaining about nothing.” — UH guard Mylik on the example of J’Wan Roberts 

Houston employs a five guard lineup at times during this blitz. Out of necessity. Out of the fact that center Ja’Vier Francis (12 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, two steals) is the only experienced big man still healthy. Jamal Shead (12 points, 10 assists), LJ Cryer (20 points, six made threes), Emanuel Sharp (17 points, four made threes), Mylik Wilson (nine points, six rebounds, two steals) and Damian Dunn (eight points, two steals) enjoy all playing together at the same time.

“It’s really good on offense too,” Mylik Wilson says. “We just space the floor and find the matchup.”

Still, even as these Cougars are rolling into a Big 12 Tournament Title Game and gearing up for a sweet Selection Sunday back in Houston, they’re thinking of the man battling just to be out there with them.

“He’s a warrior,” Wilson says of Roberts. “He’s a winner who wants to win. And we’re on a mission. He want to be out there, even if he’s hurt.

“And it just shows us. He’s playing with a hurt knee. He’s getting his knee drained all the time. And he’s not complaining about nothing. So we sure can’t be complaining about nothing.”

J’Wan Roberts leaves this game pumped about Houston freshman center Cedric Lath’s three point play, an electrical stimulation device strapped to his now hurting right shin and calf too. The black wires are trying to do their thing. Roberts knows another night of heavy icing his leg is ahead. This UH forward has seen more ice than Jody Foster in True Detective: Night Country this season. He spends much more time with associate AD for sports medicine John Houston than he does with his own family.

“I don’t know,” Roberts says when he is asked about sitting about the Big 12 Title Game with the NCAA Tournament looming. “I just want to be out there for my teammates. I know we got more basketball left to play (after the conference tourney). But I ain’t going to get no better now till then.

“I might as well just fight through the pain. There ain’t nothing else I can do at this point.”

J’Wan Roberts does not know any other way. He shows up for his teammates. No matter how much it hurts. Even when it hurts like hell.

“Him being the warrior that he is, playing with what he’s been playing through all year and coming back even after getting injured today, it shows just what we’re all about,” Jamal Shead tells PaperCity. “And that’s what we’re all about. He’s a tough guy.

“And I don’t think we would be where we are without him.”

And where’s J’Wan Roberts? Still fighting to be there for his guys.

Brothers before pain.