Eighteen years into his career, Kevin Willis arrived in San Antonio in search of his first championship.
After Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich recruited him as a free agent, Willis' first act after signing with the Spurs was to call the team trainer to check on the availability of his beloved jersey number 42, the same one he wore in Atlanta for more than a decade. No players was using it; it was his.
Once he arrived in San Antonio, Willis and his new teammates drove an hour out of the city to attend a social function for the team at the ranch home of team owner Peter Holt.
"On the back of the property, there was a river flowing through it that you could actually get in and swim," Willis recalled. "There was mountain water cascading down. It was beautiful."
Even though Willis had played against them for years, he greeted Tim Duncan and David Robinson for the first time as their teammate. Willis also introduced himself to a pair of younger teammates: Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
"I met these guys and they were all cool and laughing," Willis said. "It was a great time. I could feel the harmony there."
Popovich was there too, and despite the general sense of concord, a motion for an initiation rite was underfoot. A baptism, if you will.
"They were trying to decide if they should try to grab me and throw me in the water," Willis said.
Duncan and Robinson eyed Willis, who, despite being 40 years old at the time, still cut an imposing and chiseled 7-foot figure.
"I was in tip-top shape," Willis said. "I was swole."
On account of Willis' conditioning, and perhaps his dress clothes as well, the players reconsidered.
"They said, 'We might not want to grab him'," Willis recounted with a laugh.
Later at that same function, Willis wandered the extensive property to take in the scenery. After a long and quiet walk along the river, he found himself a sizable distance upstream.
"I sat on a rock for about 15 minutes, just getting my mind right," Willis said. "I was thinking about how thankful I was to be there. I broke down and I started to pray. I asked God to allow me to give this team what I had from within.
It was an emotional moment for Willis.
"After I said the prayer," he said. "I broke into tears. I said, 'This is the year I'm going to win the championship.'"
Willis' job with the Spurs that season was to come off the bench and give San Antonio short bursts of the same qualities that he displayed the Hawks in the 80s and early 90s: toughness, inside scoring, physicality and rebounds.
He was as always, at his core, a power forward.
That team, which boasted Mike Budenholzer as an assistant coach, finished the regular season with 60 wins. In the first round, they topped the Phoenix Suns by a 4-2 margin.
The Spurs won a hard-fought series against Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers. Then they eliminated Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and the Mavericks. In the Finals, they won against Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets.
Not only did the Spurs win the NBA championship, they also won every series by a 4-2 margin. The significance of the similarity of those wins to Willis' beloved number 42 was not lost on him. Even in that instantaneous moment of celebration, he thought back to his prayer on the river.
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In total, Willis played 21 seasons in the NBA, tying him with Robert Parish and Kevin Garnett for the most season played. His name is written all over the Hawks' franchise record book, including career points (10582, 7th), rebounds (7332, 3rd) steals (581, 8th) and blocks (425, 9th).
Those numbers, and the memories that came in making them, are the main reason Willis will be inducted in the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on Friday.
The Hawks drafted Willis with the 11th pick of the 1984 Draft, the same draft that featured Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and John Stockton. After coming off the bench for most his rookie season, Willis entered the '85-'86 season as a starter, and the frontline of him, Dominique Wilkins and Tree Rollins led the team to three consecutive second-round playoff appearances.
The young core of the Hawks, who also featured players lik made the Omni the place to be in the mid '80s. What Willis remembered most from those days was his kinship with his teammates.
"We were like soldiers," Willis said. "We believed and we trusted and we loved each other. That was the biggest thing. Going on the court was what we did, but we knew we had a bond off the court."
Despite the camaraderie that he enjoyed away from the hardwood, Willis wore a face of intensity on it – and not always to his benefit.
"I remember I had this rage," Willis said. "I'm going out and I'm not taking no crap from nobody. I'm an enforcer, and if somebody challenges me, it's on."
In one game, he got in foul trouble early, yelled at the referee and slammed a towel to the ground as he headed to the bench.
Assistant coach Willis Reed made silent eye contact with Willis from the far end of the bench. Moments later, Reed, a Hall of Fame center who helped the Knicks to the 1970 NBA title, walked over and motioned for the other Hawks to scoot down and make room for him.
"Did you see that TV show last night?" Reed asked.
"What are you talking about?!" Willis protested.
Willis didn't know how to react. At first, he was shocked that Reed wasn't there to talk basketball. But the diversion soon took hold, and Reed's gentle way and sense of humor had Willis laughing.
"See?" Reed said. "I had to come down here and calm you down a little bit and take your mind off what was troubling you. You're a heck of a player, talented and strong, but switch it. It's all about the mental part.'"
At a game in Houston, Olajuwon imparted the same sentiment during a pre-game warmup. While Willis was blistering through a warmup on one end, Olajuwon was smiling and joking with teammates on the other.
Olajuwon tried to crack Willis' serious demeanor.
"Hey, Kev, how are you doing?" Olajuwon said. "Why do you always looks so mad and upset?"
Willis answered, but the inaudible answer could barely escape his wall of intensity.
"Relax. Have fun. It's just a game," Olajuwon countered.
Olajuwon's message got through to Willis. With a clear mindset, he flourished. In 1992, Willis averaged 15.5 rebounds per game and made the All-Star Team for the first time. He would go on to average a double-double for four consecutive seasons.
Not only have Willis and Olajuwon remained friends from then until now, but Olajuwon is a customer at Willis & Walker, the clothing business that Willis founded in 1988 that sells clothes to both average-size and NBA-size men.
The company's origins can be traced back to a broken foot that sidelined Willis for the entire 1988-89 season. Willis began to explore his creative side, and he wanted to fill a gap that he knew all too well: tall men's fashion.
It wasn't a passing hobby; Willis had a longstanding interest in fashion. His mother started her career as a seamstress when she was just 18 years old, but she also had a big side project at home.
"I used to watch her try to piece things together for me because I started to grow," Willis said.
When he attended Michigan State on scholarship, he wanted to dress in the styles of the day, but he couldn't. Nothing was available in his size. The lack of right-sized clothes eventually led him to change his major to fashion and textiles.
So when Willis broke his foot, he NBA league office connected him with fashion internships and gave him a chance to put his degree to work. He spent four consecutive summers working to learn the ins and outs of the business: fabrics, design, purchasing, production and shipping.
Willis was able to do more fashion work in the summer than he could during the season. He did, however, manage to turn the rigors of NBA travel into a positive: When he arrived for a game at a style hub like Los Angeles or New York, he would always squeeze in a visit to the fashion district after morning shootaround.
The trickiest of his fashion-district forays came when he traveled to New Jersey.
"I'd actually get a ride and go all the way to New York to go buy fabrics," Willis said.
"I thought to myself, 'I need fabric, man. I can't leave this city without getting my fabric,'" Willis said. "I'd end up getting back to the hotel at 2:30 or 3:00, and the bus would leave for the game at 5:45. I had to get (back to the hotel), lie down and rest for a little bit."
Then Willis joked, "Thank God New Jersey wasn't that good then."
Even though Willis first produced leather goods, the denim segment of his business developed soon after. And even though Willis started his NBA career in 1984, it was still around 21 years later when NBA Commissioner David Stern instituted a dress code that required business casual attire for all team functions.
At the time Willis was nervous about losing a core demographic from his business, and he talked with Stern on the subject.
"I said, 'Hey, David, you hit me in the side on this one, because I sell a lot of denim to the guys,'" Willis recalled with a laugh.
Luckily for Willis, the code had some wiggle room for denim as business casual.
"It was important for the business that we continued to sell denim to the guys," Willis said. "We cleaned it up and made it more of a dress denim."
"Then it was good with him," Willis said, smiling. "I thanked David for that. Big time."
When Willis retired two seasons later in 2007, the decision to live in Atlanta was easy. His business was here. His family liked Atlanta, and had already moved here a few years earlier. But there was something more too.
"It was a place where I felt very safe and secure in," Willis said. "People were really respectful and nice, and I found that to be enjoyable. There are great relationships here."
Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @KLChouinard