2,191 Days
This originally appeared on my Medium and Twitter (@BFBaumgartner) accounts on Nov. 14, 2023.
You never know when it’s going to be the last time.
Have you ever given much thought to the last time you did a favorite activity, the last time you were somewhere special, the last time you’ve talked to someone or the last time you shared company with someone you love and admire?
With how busy life can get, we all sometimes can lose sight of the little things and the things that matter most and make life special. It’s vital we never lose that perspective.
To that end, Nov. 14 — for me — has suddenly taken on a new meaning every .year it comes on the calendar, bringing several different emotions.
I’ll walk into the United Center in Chicago on the night of Nov. 14, 2023, to watch my alma mater, Michigan State, play Duke in the Champions Classic.
And I’ll be thinking about the person who was there with me the last time I saw the Spartans tangle with the Blue Devils in person, in that exact same spot — Chris Lee, my childhood best friend — and who won’t be there tonight.
We obviously both didn’t know it at the time, but that night exactly six years ago (Nov. 14, 2017), which ended with an 88–81 Duke victory, would be the final time we’d ever be together and see each other.
It’s been 2,191 days since Grayson Allen’s 37 points helped pace Duke over Michigan State in a battle of 1 v. 2. Because of the news I’d find out 1,215 days later, that mid November night six years ago evokes memories that I still can’t necessarily fully grasp.
John Monteith, another good friend who lives in Arizona, had texted me early in the morning of March 13, 2021, asking me if I had heard about Chris. I wrote back and said I hadn’t. Monteith proceeded to let me know that Chris had passed away suddenly the morning before at his home in Lansing, Mich.
**
Chris was born in East Grand Rapids, Mich. on April 12, 1983, and me and my twin brother, Brett, would follow suit six days later in Winfield, Ill., on April 18, 1983.
We became fast friends growing up once the Lees moved to the same subdivision in Naperville, less than a five-minute walk from each other.
His life ended exactly one month shy of his 38th Birthday.
For the 37 years and 11 months that he lived, he lived fully with a sincere passion for friends, family, his country (he served in the Army from 2006–2009, spending 16 months in Iraq from Sept. 2007 to Dec. 2008) and perhaps above all else — Michigan State.
His father, Mark, and mother, Kathy, both attended there. Mark wrestled there and one of Chris’ two younger brothers, Johnny, played baseball there.
If you cut any of the Lees open, I swear they’d likely spill out green instead of red. Their immediate family is as entrenched in that university as any people I’ve come to know.
Shawn Respert and Eric Snow were his guys growing up.
As proud as Chris was of the Spartans, he carried his time on Naperville Central’s football team just as tight.
At Naperville Cemetery, his ashes are buried next to James Haavig, his youth football coach. As you stand in front of Chris’ gravesite and turn left, Memorial Stadium’s scoreboard is practically straight ahead, across the street from Hillside Road.
Chris spent two years on the Redhawks’ varsity football team, including the team that won the 1999 Class 6A state title behind quarterback Owen Daniels, who’d go on to play 10 years in the NFL as a tight end, running back Ryan Clifford and a suffocating defense.
We intersected our senior year in 2000 as I was serving as a student manager for the team.
The Redhawks’ bid to win a second straight state championship hit a thud in the form of crosstown rival Naperville North in a Class 6A state quarterfinal on Nov. 11, 2000 — Veterans Day.
With the Redhawks having erased an 18-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter and looking to win a 26th straight game, a McCareins-led Huskies’ offense, which outrushed the Redhawks 327–88, scored a late touchdown and secured one final stop to pull off the 36–33 upset.
Three days later, on Nov. 14, 2000, we all gathered as a team one final time and were left to only ponder what could have been.
As I made my way home after the school day and that meeting concluded, my acceptance package to Michigan State — where I’d eventually receive a bachelor’s degree from its School of Journalism in 2005 — was waiting for me.
**
What Tom Izzo, whose first season on Jud Heathcote’s staff began six months after we were born (1983–84), has done for Michigan State, both on and off the court, can’t be measured and I’m not going to try to do that justice here.
The numbers — 688 victories (as of Nov. 14, 2023), 10 Big Ten regular season titles, six Big Ten Tournament titles, eight Final Fours and the 2000 national title — tell a compelling story the 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee has authored since the 1995–96 season when he took over for Heathcote.
Michigan State’s history against Duke under Izzo’s stewardship, however, sticks out like a sore thumb. I know it’s something I know he’s worked hard to try to rectify and turn around to some degree.
Izzo and Mike Krzyzewski, who retired after the 2021–22 season, met 16 times — dating back to the first meeting at the Great Eight at the United Center on Dec. 2, 1998 (a 73–67 Duke victory) — with Duke holding a 13–3 edge.
Six times the two teams have met in the NCAA Tournament and two of the Spartans’ three victories under Izzo in the series have come in the NCAAs, leading to a pair of Final Four appearances (2005 and 2019).
Kenny Goins’ three-pointer over the outstretched hand of Zion Williamson with 34.3 seconds left in regulation spurred Michigan State to a 68–67 upset in the 2019 East Regional Final in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 2019.
Back in the Final Four for the first time since losing to Duke in 2015, Michigan State unfortunately would fall six days later to Texas Tech, 61–51, in a national semifinal in Minneapolis.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic stopping the 2020 NCAA Tournament, possibly preventing a long run behind Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman, that win over Williamson and the Blue Devils was the last Michigan State victory in the NCAA Tournament Chris would see.
**
Fast forwarding back to the present, Chris’ parents helped facilitate the opportunity for me and my mother, Gloria, to be in attendance for the 13th Champions Classic, a doubleheader that began in 2011 with Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State playing each other every third year.
This year’s matchup was billed as a meeting between two preseason top five teams (Duke, No. 2; Michigan State, No. 4).
But the first week of the season saw each team lose at home — Michigan State to James Madison (Nov. 6) and Duke to Arizona (Nov. 10).
Michigan State’s loss at home to James Madison — the program’s first November home loss since 1986 — on the season’s first day (Nov. 6, 2023) puts its preseason ranking into a little question.
Izzo has earned the trust of Spartans everywhere that he’ll get things figured out and squared away with a team far deeper than the one that lost 13 games in 2022–23 but was the final Big Ten team standing after two 2023 NCAA Tournament wins, only to lose in overtime to Kansas State in an East Regional Semifinal at Madison Square Garden.
Good, bad or indifferent — and given the program’s recent history against Duke, expectations are definitely measured — I know I have to be there as Izzo takes on Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils for the first time. (Duke won 74–65 on Nov. 14, 2023, improving the program’s record against Izzo to 14–3)
It’s just my small way of continuing to try to honor a good friend gone too soon and someone who will never be forgotten by those who knew him well.
