Goodman: Jamea Harris family hurting after comments by Alabama’s Nate Oats - AL.com

Kelvin Heard does not want the thoughts and prayers of Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats and his team anymore.

Heard is the stepfather of Jamea Harris, whose slaying on Jan.15 in Tuscaloosa involves Oats’ Alabama basketball players. Weary and suffering, Heard reached out to me on Wednesday and we talked for about an hour. He wants Oats to understand a few things from the point of view of Heard’s family. Jamea lived in his home. Heard is now committed to raising Jamea’s five-year-old son. We shared tears together throughout our conversation about the senseless death of Harris and how her son, Kaine, is just now beginning to understand that his mom is not coming home.

“‘Momma is an angel now.’ He said that yesterday,” Heard said. “He’s learning about MLK in school, and he said momma is now in heaven with MLK.”

That really got me. That ripped me up inside, and so much so that I was too mentally exhausted to write this column immediately after our conversation. I had to walk away from my work for the night. Later on that evening, the Alabama basketball team defeated South Carolina up in Columbia by an overtime score of 78-76. His name inserted into a capital murder testimony by police on Tuesday, star player Brandon Miller scored the winning basket a day later, finishing the game with 41 points scored.

RELATED: Brandon Miller booed during game at South Carolina

RELATED: Darius Miles asked Brandon Miller to bring gun used in killing

RELATED: Why wasn’t Brandon Miller charged?

The game report in this column is relevant for a couple reasons. One, Alabama basketball is inextricably linked to Harris’ death from now on, and I wrote on Tuesday that Miller shouldn’t be playing because of his involvement in Harris’ death. Miller isn’t being charged with anything by the Tuscaloosa district attorney, but to say he’s faultless in Harris’ death, based on the police testimony, doesn’t square. Oats said on Tuesday that Miller was at the “wrong spot at the wrong time” and that Miller “did nothing wrong.”

Let me ask this: What did Miller do that was right that night other than apparently find a good attorney?

Heard was at a restaurant on Tuesday when he saw Oats’ news conference on television. It hurt him and his wife, DeCarla, to the point of tears.

“There was only one person in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was Jamea,” Heard said. “When I heard him say that my heart hit the floor. His words cut so deep. It’s just downright disrespectful.”

Oats has since apologized publicly for his hurtful comments, once in a statement and again on Wednesday night after the basketball game.

Said Oats: “Before we get into the game, I want to address yesterday’s press conference and my response to the Brandon Miller question. I’m not here to make excuses, but I want to make it clear I didn’t have the details from the hearing that morning since I was coming straight from practice. And I used a poor choice of words and maybe made it appear like I wasn’t taking this tragic situation seriously, which we have throughout the course of it. I sincerely apologize for that.”

Before the game on Wednesday, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said in a podcast with ESPN’s Rece Davis that the call to allow Miller to play was a group decision that included Alabama president Stuart R. Bell.

So, in other words, the very bad decision to play Miller even after Tuesday’s police testimony apparently went all the way to the top at Alabama, according to Byrne. It’s also worth noting that Alabama’s AD said in the podcast with ESPN’s Davis that Alabama didn’t know until Tuesday’s police testimony about the text message from Alabama basketball player Darius Miles to Miller asking for the gun later used in Harris’ death.

“He brought a gun to where a person was murdered and he did nothing wrong?” Heard said. “Jamea could still be alive.”

Alabama’s basketball season will remain a major news story through the NCAA Tournament because Alabama has what looks like the best team in the country, Miller has the talent to be an NBA lottery pick and it is shocking for many longtime observers of collegiate athletics that Miller remains on the team at this point. There is outrage nationally, and for good reason. The perception of integrity at the University of Alabama has been lost.

“Brandon Miller is knee deep in this situation no matter how they want to spin this,” Heard said. “We trust the D.A. and the work that they’re doing.”

Police say the gun used in Harris’ slaying belonged to Miles and was delivered to the scene of the killing by Miller. Miles was charged with capital murder and so was the alleged triggerman, Michael Davis. Miller and one other basketball player, Jaden Bradley, were present at the scene.

For the SEC, which hosts the conference tournament in Nashville from March 8-12, a storm grows. Alabama basketball now represents a lot of different things for a lot of different people. For Heard’s family, it all represents intense pain.

“This season is stained in Jamea’s blood,” Heard said. “After what this coach said, for us as a family, this season is stained in the blood of Jamea Harris and it’s not ever washing out. Coach Oats crossed the line [Tuesday]. He said they prayed at practice. They weren’t praying for Jamea. They were praying for their own players.”

Kindly, Heard requests that Oats never again utter the name of Jamea Harris, and especially the name of her surviving son, until Oats calls DeCarla and offers Harris’ mother condolences in her daughter’s death. The expressions of prayer coming from Oats, along with Alabama’s team this season, have turned into major sources of trauma for Heard’s family.

“There are only two tragic figures in this and they are Jamea and Kaine and that can’t get lost,” Heard said.

Heard added that he didn’t know about Miller’s proximity to Harris’ death until the testimony. From the beginning of this, in the days after the police arrived at his house and the screaming nightmare began, it did not sit well with Heard that Alabama’s basketball coach would call former NFL player Ray Lewis for advice before reaching out and offering condolences to Jamea’s mother. Lewis, of course, was famously involved in a murder investigation in 2000, and testified as a witness against two of his friends.

“It just made everything clear because we could not comprehend why he would reach out to Ray Lewis,” Heard said. “I’m not trying to rehash the situation with Ray Lewis, but I’m old enough to remember, and now it makes sense.

“He has time to call Ray Lewis, but he doesn’t have time to call Jamea’s mother.”

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

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