Jonny Flynn poignantly remembers the moment. Because it made even Jim Boeheim crack a smile.

It was Feb. 6, 2008, in the middle of Flynn’s freshman season on the Syracuse basketball team. Flynn and the rest of his teammates were in a huddle while Boeheim instructed them during a first-half media timeout in a game against Connecticut. That was when the Carrier Dome broke out in song. It started with the student section, and the rest of the crowd soon caught on.

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Jonny! Happy birthday to you!

‘That was cool,’ Flynn said. ‘I was in a timeout, and I started laughing. Everybody started laughing. Coach Boeheim even started laughing. He was chuckling a little bit. That was definitely a memorable moment for me in the Dome. Being a freshman and having everybody sing ‘Happy Birthday’ is pretty cool.’

That was when Syracuse became special to Flynn. On Friday, Flynn will return to Syracuse and the Dome as one of three former SU stars currently with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves — with Jason Hart, Flynn and the newly drafted Wes Johnson on their roster — will square off with the Detroit Pistons at 7:30 p.m. in the Dome Friday.

A Timberwolves spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Flynn will not play in the game as he recovers from a hip injury that could sideline him until November. But for these three former SU players, a return trip to Syracuse is good enough.

From three very different paths, these three come back to where it all started. Back to the Dome. Back home.

‘Go to South Campus and chill with my old teammates,’ Flynn said of the first thing he’ll do when he gets back to campus. ‘Chill with my old boys, my old teammates and catch up.

‘It’ll be good to be home.’

***

Flynn doesn’t regret his decision to leave the Orange after his sophomore season in 2009. Not even after suffering through a disastrous 15-67 campaign last season with the Timberwolves. Not even after seeing his former squad make a run to the Sweet 16.

‘It was the toughest decision, to that point, of my life,’ Flynn said. ‘The toughest decision. I knew how good the team was going to be the next year. I knew how good they were going to be. I always wanted to play with Wesley Johnson. And it was just hard for me to leave Syracuse.’

Of the three returning players, Flynn’s path was the most set in stone. He was the golden boy. Boeheim made a trip to Niagara Falls High School when Flynn was a sophomore there. Boeheim doesn’t make recruiting trips for any sophomore.

And upon his entry into the SU starting lineup as a freshman in 2007, Flynn quickly became the golden boy with Orange fans as well.

He scored 28 points in his debut against Siena, a record for a freshman debut. For an encore in SU’s next game against St. Joseph’s, he only made one field goal the entire night. But that was the game-winning 3-pointer with 5.3 seconds remaining in a 72-69 win, a clutch shot that would soon grow to become a trend in his two seasons with the Orange.

‘We just liked his attitude, his effort and what he could do on the court,’ Boeheim said of that recruiting trip. ‘We thought he could get better. At that time, he wasn’t a highly rated player because he was so young. He became a tremendous player.’

And then, of course, there was the six-overtime game. In the quarterfinals of the 2009 Big East tournament against Connecticut, Flynn willed the Orange to an upset victory.

He was on the court for 67 of the contest’s 70 minutes. For tired free throw after tired free throw, all 16 of which he made necessary to push SU into the next overtime.

‘He just made a number of big plays to help us win that game,’ Boeheim said. ‘It seemed like he always had to make two to get us to the next overtime. And it seemed like he always made two. He did. He just was unbelievable under pressure. He just kept making them, one after the other.’

But that game also pushed him away from his home. He was thrust into the national spotlight, and so he entered his name into the NBA draft pot after saying before the NCAA Tournament he would stick around for his junior season.

No regrets. His path continued.

‘Either way you go with a decision like that,’ Flynn said, ‘you’re going to be thinking about what would have happened if you went the other way. I think I made the right decision. I have no regrets.’

***

Boeheim doesn’t go after transfers. Johnson himself knows this.

‘He doesn’t take transfers,’ Johnson said. ‘The fact that he took me, that meant a whole lot to me. It was him going out on a limb and really putting all his trust in me. I was just very appreciative. I can’t thank Coach Boeheim enough for giving me a chance to come to (Syracuse).’

And so Johnson’s path took an unexpected turn toward the home that would establish him. From relative obscurity at Iowa State to a year of waiting and unknown at SU.

Then came ‘the game,’ as Boeheim calls it. Against reigning national champion North Carolina, at Madison Square Garden like Flynn, Johnson burst onto the national scene with a 25-point game. And Syracuse burst onto the national scene, never leaving the Top 10 the rest of the year.

‘His consistency throughout the year was tremendous,’ Boeheim said. ‘But that game, he certainly kind of introduced himself to everybody in the nation, on ESPN and national television, and went on from there.’

Johnson kept establishing himself at a school he called his second home. The memories are what make him want to come back. The memories of Boeheim’s 800th win last year, something only he and his teammates will forever be a part of. The memories of SU’s much-hyped bout with Villanova that set an on-campus attendance record. The memories that couldn’t happen anywhere else.

Johnson, too, chose to leave after establishing himself in Syracuse, continuing on his path toward a top five pick with the same team that had drafted Flynn a year earlier. But the memories of ‘home’ will always linger.

‘It was very tough,’ Johnson said. ‘It was my dream to go to the NBA, but I love Syracuse. I was torn between the decision. But I couldn’t lose either way I picked.’

***

For Hart, the excitement of return is different from Flynn’s and Johnson’s. It is more subdued — 10 years removed from SU will do that. But it is also a relief. A reminder of the most stable time in his basketball career.

‘I can’t compare Syracuse to me getting paid millions of dollars. It’s different,’ Hart said. ‘I think now, it’s more of a job than it ever was. … I think now, playing with different teams, your motive is really different.’

In Hart’s nine-year NBA career, he has played for nine different teams, mixing an international season in there as well. That makes his four-season stint with the Orange by far the most constant stop.

For Hart, Syracuse has been, literally, the most permanent home he has had in his playing career.

‘Syracuse definitely was one of the places I felt at home,’ Hart said, ‘because I was there for some time. But in the professional ranks, unless you’re a Top 10 or top five pick, you’re going to move around a little bit.’

That’s why, more than anything, he’s anxious to come back home.

He waited eight years to make the first trip back to Syracuse. This time, it comes only about two years later. He’ll go catch up with SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins, a person with whom Hart said he’s extremely close. And come game time, he’ll run out of the tunnel, sure to get goosebumps like he did each and every game he played with the Orange.

‘Running out of the tunnel, every single time, it’s a thrill,’ Hart said. ‘There’s so much honor and thrill to run out of the tunnel for four years.’

***

Flynn took the path of the golden boy. Johnson took the path of the unexpected legacy-leaver on a storied program. Hart took the path of the player who always knew his role on the larger team, something Boeheim said has kept him in the NBA this long.

Starting this summer, in the 2010 NBA Draft, all of their paths finally came together on the same NBA team. The Wolves took Johnson with the fourth pick. Later, in September, Hart was added to the preseason roster.

And now their paths lead back to where they all started. Back home.

‘We’re excited that we’re coming back together, especially being on the same team and coming back to our home school,’ Johnson said. ‘You can’t put it in words how excited we are about coming back.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm