Background
Lorenzo Charles was born in Brooklyn, New York to Panamanian immigrants.
Lorenzo Charles was born in Brooklyn, New York to Panamanian immigrants.
North Carolina State University.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Charles played basketball for North Carolina State University and scored the game-winning points in the 1983 National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Tournament. He played briefly in the National Basketball Association and for several professional teams in Europe. Charles died in a 2011 bus accident.
He was a 1981 graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School and played college basketball at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
During his sophomore season with the Wolfpack, Charles scored the game-winning alley-oop dunk off a long air ball, lofted hurriedly by Dereck Whittenburg in the final seconds of the championship game of the 1983 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. The basket broke a 52–52 tie at The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as North Carolina State scored the last eight points to defeat the top-ranked and heavily favored Houston Cougars, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde "The Glide" Drexler and the rest of Phi Slama Jama.
Charles blossomed into a star in his next two seasons for the Wolfpack. After packing on another 10 pounds (45 kg) of muscle, he averaged 18 points and more than eight rebounds a game in 1983-1984, becoming a third-team All-American.
As a senior, Charles averaged 18 points a game and grabbed more than six rebounds as North Carolina State finished the regular season tied for first-place with a 9-5 conference record in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Wolfpack advanced to the Elite Eight in the 1985 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, but fell 69–60 in the West region finals to Saint John"s University, led by player of the year Chris Mullin. Charles" number 43 was honored by the North Carolina State program in 2008, 25 years after his most-famous dunk. Charles was the 41st selection in the 1985 National Basketball Association Draft at age 21 and went on to have a modest professional career, playing briefly in the National Basketball Association with the Atlanta Hawks.
He later played with several European teams, particularly in Italy for Arexons Cantù and Irge Desio.
Charles died at age 47 in a bus crash on Interstate 40 in Raleigh on June 27, 2011. He was at the controls of an Elite Coach rental bus, without passengers.
Charles is interred at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, twenty spaces from Jim Valvano (1946–1993), his head coach at North Carolina State.