"The charged air in the room seemed to briefly interfere with the perception of time itself, so that one participant thought the moment lasted barely 30 seconds while another felt it unspooling for as long as 15 minutes. In truth Wes probably had about three minutes. He roared and clenched his fists when the buzzer sounded but did not run or jump like his teammates. Calmly, almost casually, he strolled to midcourt and joined his friends. A small boy jumped to touch his shoulder blades. An older man put a hand on the small of his back. He lined up to shake hands with the other team. The Blackhawks huddled for a brief word from their coach. Two teammates lifted Wes off the floor, and he smiled down at Xavier.
“Great game,” Xavier said. He would later say he felt on top of the world right then, even though he’d made no real contribution to the victory. He was Wes Leonard’s best friend and fellow Blackhawk, and that was enough.
No one knows why it happened then. One prominent doctor thinks the glorious surge of adrenaline could have pushed Wes’s heart to the breaking point. Another insists the circumstances were merely coincidental. The precise timing of sudden cardiac arrest has always been a mystery. Just after Wes’s teammates set him down and just before Xavier could wrap him in a hug, Wes’s knees buckled. He crashed to the floor."