Raging Bull: The Passion of Michael Carrera

The images blend into a descriptive collage.

There’s Michael Carrera, grinning ear-to-ear in a back room of Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena despite gauze wrapped around his head and an ice pack on his knee. There he is, heading upcourt with a pumping fist reminiscent of a roundhouse uppercut a heavyweight would envy. Him again, chin bandaged and a bloody Kleenex rammed in one nostril, refusing to take a seat against Tennessee.

The pictures need no tags or captions. Energy, intensity, hustle and passion are terms his coaches and teammates say. Nightmare, relentless, antagonizing and infuriating are words from his opponents.

“It’s just what I do,” Carrera said in that slightly incredulous tone, wondering why people ask him how he does what he does when it’s the only way he’s ever done it.

Long after he’s gone, the best way to describe him will still be his last name. “Carrera” will describe future Gamecocks who have only one gear and would gladly remove a limb if it meant winning.

“If you can’t be excited about doing your job, whatever that is, 31 times out of 365 times a year, that means you’re going to grow up to be a pretty sorry man,” USC coach Frank Martin said before Carrera’s career performance against Mississippi State. “Mike has been engaged 31 times a year for three years in a row and 19 so far this year. His passion for life, his passion for our team is kind of what we’ve tried to build our program on.”

That was evident against the Bulldogs. With the rest of South Carolina’s playmakers whistle-slapped, Carrera was seeing the contest go the way it’s mostly gone during his career. He hates losing almost as much as he loves winning, yet didn’t demand the ball or scream at his teammates to wake up. They already knew what to do.

Twelve minutes later, Carrera had set six career-bests and tied another. It was the kind of game that defines legacies, yet he had no desire to wear a crown. The Gamecocks won, and won because of him. He was already looking ahead to the next one.

“I think it might be something in the water in Venezuela, because another one from there I coached was Greivis Vasquez,” said Stu Vetter, Carrera’s coach at Montrose Christian (Md.) School. “Greivis could fire a crowd up as good as anybody I’ve ever seen, and Michael has those same qualities.”

Carrera has perfected the A-OK hand to his eye after a 3-pointer and had a Dikembe Mutombo finger-wag after a block against Clemson this year. The intensity that endears him to USC enrages the other team; almost all leave Colonial Life Arena thanking the heavens they don’t have to face him again.

“I remember (Oak Hill coach) Steve Smith telling me one time that’s one guy he didn’t want to have to play against,” Vetter said. “He didn’t want any part of Michael Carrera.”

Martin found him at Montrose, a lightly regarded prospect despite averaging a double-double for a national championship team. His recruiting was one phone call, intense player wanting to be with an intense coach, and his freshman year was highlighted by being the only player in the country 6-foot-5 or shorter that ranked among the Top 100 of offensive and defensive rebounders.

The games he missed because of concussions or a bad hip were a compilation of what the Gamecocks would have the next four years – Carrera would play hard all the time, but his kamikaze style would put him on the bench, by foul or injury.

“The biggest thing for him was to be able to keep it under control. You don’t want him to lose it, because that’s his strength,” Vetter said. “I never wanted to do anything to hurt his intensity.”

Martin coached Carrera to use his natural gifts wisely. Citing Carrera’s passion as his greatest strength and weakness, Martin and Carrera would sometimes go nose-to-nose.

“He and I have had our bumps in the road, just like I have them with my 16-year-old at home,” said Martin, who suspended Carrera for a game as a sophomore when Carrera got a little testy in a post-loss handshake line. “That’s the beauty of when you really create a bond in love, is that when you deal with difficult moments, you don’t have two people that walk away from each other. And that’s been the beautiful thing about Mike.”

Carrera learned to control his intensity without losing any, blossoming into a diamond-beaked hawk on defense and honing his offensive game. Playing out of position at forward because the Gamecocks had no other choice; to the three to develop his future game; back to four in tight situations and at three this year to show off his 3-point shooting, he rounded into a complete player.

Rebounding was where he made his biggest impact, again leading USC in caroms per game this year like he has the previous three seasons. The gift Vetter saw at Montrose – “Once he gets his hands on the basketball, it’s his. And I dare you to take it away from him” – combined with Martin’s motto: Rebounding isn’t a talent, it’s a choice.

Carrera knew at every tipoff that he was going to get the biggest hands Vetter ever saw on quite a few basketballs over the next 40 minutes. It’s why he showed up every day in his work uniform – kneepads, elbow pads, shorts rolled up at the waist. The numerous Band-Aids and lotion dabs for floor burns completed the gladiatorial splendor of a player who would win or die trying.

“He doesn’t look cool, but he sure knows how to play,” Vetter said.

Martin told Carrera as a freshman he had to use his hustle more responsibly, playing the part of Ben Parker as the youthful Spider-Man listened. It’s resulted in standout play, a fatherly relationship and a lifelong commitment.

“Like I’ve told him 100 times, if I got to go across the street, and I got to fight 100 dudes, I’m not looking over my shoulder,” Martin said. “I know that dude’s standing right next to me, and I’m ready to go. That’s what he’s about.”

Carrera appreciates the plaudits, but has never trumpeted them.

“I just want to win,” he said. “Only reason I play is to win.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Raging Bull: The Passion of Michael Carrera."