The final text from his late grandfather said keep shooting — his next three swished
The last text message Erik Stevenson received from his grandfather read: “Keep throwing up the threes. They’re going to fall.”
Late Monday evening, Ron Wilson died suddenly in his Washington home watching his beloved Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football. More than 1,800 miles away in Wichita, the loss devastated Stevenson, who considered his grandfather his “favorite person in this world.”
Wichita State honored Wilson, a retired lieutenant colonel, before Saturday’s men’s basketball game with a moment of silence. Stevenson was a wreck. He bawled into a towel, as his teammates wrapped their arms around him in support. It was therapeutic in a way for Stevenson, a release of all of the pent-up emotions from the week.
“It’s been tough. I can’t really speak a whole lot on it without getting emotional,” Stevenson said. “I’m very grateful for that moment they did for me and my family. I’m just glad I’m here with my brothers. This is the only spot I’d rather be besides home right now.”
Back home, in Lacey, Washington, the tears came for the Stevenson family not even three minutes into the game. Erik curled around a screen, planted his feet behind the three-point line and let it fly for the first time since the text message.
“Keep throwing up the threes. They’re going to fall.”
Sure enough, Stevenson’s first shot from deep touched nothing but net.
“It brought tears to our eyes,” said Debbie Stevenson, Erik’s mother and the daughter of Wilson. “It was kind of surreal sitting there watching it go in. He must have been watching over him.”
“It had to go in,” Erik said with a grin.
Stevenson made 4 of 7 shots and scored 10 points in WSU’s 103-62 victory over Tennessee-Martin, as the Shockers improved to 3-0. It was the type of game — Stevenson made two threes and finished twice on drives — that Wilson would have texted his grandson about and praised him for picking the right balance between shooting and driving.
There was no bigger fan of Stevenson than his 71-year-old grandfather.
Back home in Washington, Wilson would frequent local restaurants and demand at least one television be switched to the Shocker game. He would tell anyone who would listen about Wichita State and how great No. 10 in yellow — “That’s my grandson!” he would exclaim any time Stevenson touched the ball — was.
He even carried WSU basketball schedules in his car, handing them out to people in the bar so they would know the next time Stevenson and the Shockers played. His daughter laughs at the thought of how many random people in northwest Washington have Wichita State basketball schedules because of Wilson.
“My dad was just super supportive,” Debbie Stevenson said. “He believed in family and there’s nothing that should come in between family. He’s always had a special way with Erik. I think my dad’s greatest thrill was seeing Erik get that far to Wichita State.”
Wilson had attended a handful of WSU games last season and become a popular fixture among the WSU players on his visits. He had recently purchased a plane ticket to Wichita and was planning on catching his first game of this season in late December.
Stevenson could always count on the right mixture of encouraging words, scouting reports and honest assessments from his grandfather. That’s why he was so devastated when WSU coach Gregg Marshall and WSU’s character coach Steve Dickie informed Stevenson of the sudden passing on Tuesday.
In less than two years, Wilson had made a big enough impact on WSU’s program that Marshall was moved following Saturday’s game to give Wilson a tribute of his own.
“His grandpa was a special, special gentleman,” said Marshall, who met him while recruiting Erik to WSU. “You could tell the reverence he was held in, not just by Erik and the family, but everybody. He was just one of those guys. He was a dude.
“He was a great fisherman, a great golfer. He was a great sportsman. He was a military hero. He jumped out of helicopters, I understand. And just died way too young and it really tore Erik up.”
Stevenson is in the process of building the confidence to be the shooter he knows he can be and not the one who made 27.8% of his three-pointers last season. His grandfather injected him with so much confidence entering this season because he talked about Stevenson’s sophomore season as a breakthrough like it had already happened. It was his way of trying to speak it into existence.
Even though Wilson won’t be here to witness it, his impact on Stevenson will fuel the sophomore toward the breakout season in a Shocker uniform he so desperately wants.
“Erik is such a good shooter and he hasn’t been able to quite prove it yet,” Debbie Stevenson said. “We’re just waiting for him to go off like we know he can. People haven’t really seen what he’s capable of and my dad was such a big believer in Erik and he kept talking about this was his year. He just kept telling him to keep shooting.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 5:05 AM.
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