By R.L. Bynum
Anybody who questions Deja Kelly’s toughness and dogged determination isn’t paying attention or is letting her off-the-court persona as “The Queen” mislead them.
The 5–8 senior North Carolina guard — who embraces fashion, long fingernails and eyelashes, and beauty — is a relentless competitor who refuses to let physical challenges keep her off the court.
The latest and most impressive of a few examples came on Dec. 19 with her version of the Michael Jordan flu game — appropriately, at the Jumpman Invitational.
Kelly hadn’t picked up a basketball or eaten a complete meal in the three days before No. 24 North Carolina’s 61–52 victory over Oklahoma in Charlotte as she battled a stomach bug. Kelly cut short her shootaround that morning because she was throwing up and threw up into a trash can in the middle of UNC’s huddle during timeouts.
Thanks to the training staff giving her the proper fluids, she didn’t just play. She excelled, scoring a game-high 21 points and becoming the 25th player in program history to eclipse 1,500 career points.
“I knew that I had to extra prepare myself mentally for that game, just because I knew how I was feeling,” said Kelly, who didn’t talk to the media after the game because she still was throwing up. “I didn’t want my team to see me very weak. Even though they knew I was sick, I just knew that I had to lead them the best I could.”
Kelly was determined to help the Tar Heels get what she called a “must-win” after losing two of three at the Gulf Coast Showcase and falling 65–58 against No. 1 South Carolina on Nov. 30 and 76–54 to No. 15 UConn on Dec. 10.
“It was a mental thing. Mentally, I just had to be tough. I had to push through,” Kelly said on Friday as she prepared for UNC’s ACC opener at noon Saturday (The CW) against Clemson (8–5, 1–0 ACC).
Once the Tar Heels (8–4) built a lead early in the second half, most players who were that sick would have sat for the rest of the game.
She sat for 59 seconds late in the third quarter, the only time she was out of the game.
“Oklahoma was a good team; they could shoot their way back into the game, so I knew that I had to keep my foot on the gas for the team and continue to lead them and just do whatever I could to make sure we get that win,” said Kelly, who leads the team in scoring (15.3 points per game) and steals (2.0; tied with fellow senior co-captain Alyssa Ustby).
Kelly’s performance left her teammates in awe.
“For her to come out here, and to play so selflessly, and to even get to the basket and just hold up her own was remarkable,” Ustby said after the game. “I’m so proud of her. And I’m just really happy that she’s on my team.”
Kelly was a five-star recruit out of Texas. UNC coach Courtney Banghart remembers recruiting her hard, telling her UNC was where she needed to be and they’d figure it out once she got to Chapel Hill. Banghart is thankful that Kelly and her family trusted her.
“The story of Deja is well told; it’s just that they leave out a lot of details,” Banghart said. “And that’s how tough she is, how selfless she is, how committed she is and what a joy she is to coach. … Her actions meet her intentions.”
Kelly said that everybody was calling it her Jordan game before and after the game, but it’s far from the first time she’s overcome challenges.
Kelly landed awkwardly after running into a screen from Ohio State’s Eboni Walker in Carolina’s second-round NCAA tournament game last season. She hurt her knee, was carried off the court and went to the dressing room with 6:59 left and the Tar Heels trailing by 12.
“As soon as I went down and they were taking me back, the only thought in my mind was, ‘What’s the score? What’s the time, and what do I need to do to get back on the floor?’ ” Kelly said that day. She returned 4½-minutes later and scored 22 points in a heartbreaking 71–69 season-ending loss.
Earlier this season, on Nov. 30, she collided with South Carolina’s 6–7 center Kamilla Cardoso on a drive, banging the back of her head on the court after trying to grab Cardoso to avoid the fall. After staying down on the court for a long period and getting up slowly, Kelly and the athletic trainer headed to the dressing room with 2:13 left in the third quarter. But, you guessed it, Kelly returned for the start of the fourth quarter.
“With things like that, with me coming back out, I think that that was just a mental-toughness thing, and that was my competitive nature just saying, ‘Your team needs you. You’ve got to get back out there, whatever it takes,’ ” Kelly said. “So, that’s pretty much my mentality always, but especially when there’s some adversity that hits.”
During her freshman season, Kelly was sick with a stomach bug all week and was on an IV the morning of a 76–69 home win over N.C. State on Feb. 7, 2021, but played 12 minutes.
“I remember coaches were like, ‘I don’t even know if you’re going to play,’ “ Kelly said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna play.’ It was a lot of uncertainty because I didn’t even do the shoot around that day.”
That was three days after playing in a 61–51 home loss to Florida State. That State game was the only time she’s come off the bench in her career. She went scoreless in both games, which has happened only one other time in her career.
She was determined to ensure the bug didn’t affect her on-court performance this time.
In the coaches’ minds, they weren’t sure if Kelly would even play against Oklahoma. Kelly, who traveled to Charlotte separately from the rest of the team, called her interactions with Banghart leading up to the game “kind of funny.”
Banghart, obviously concerned, kept asking her how she was feeling.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t worry about me. I’m playing,’ ” Kelly remembers. “She saw me throwing up a number of times, and I was just like, ‘Don’t worry about me; I’m playing.’ I wouldn’t even let her worry or let her continue to ask me. I’m like, ‘I’m good. I’m fine.’ ”
She had to keep assuring her teammates during the game that she was fine even as she kept throwing up during timeouts. Kelly remembers Ustby saying during one timeout that she was “such a warrior.”
“They’re like, ‘Are you good?’ I’m like, ‘I’m good. What’s the play? I’m good. What’s happening next?’ I didn’t want them to give it much thought, either, because I don’t want them worrying about that,” Kelly said. “So I just did the best I could to kind of mask that and just be there for them.”
Kelly has missed only one game during her Carolina career, a 93–25 home win over South Carolina State last season on Nov. 16, because of an ankle injury. She returned eight days later for the next game to score 24 points in a 76–65 win at James Madison.
She admits that some people may not perceive her accurately because she embraces her nickname “Queen.”
Her mom, Theresa Nunn, has called her “a queen” since Kelly was a little girl, telling her to carry herself like one. Then, Brian McLaughlin, better known as “B Daht,” dubbed her “Queen Kelly” during her sophomore season. It stuck, and her teammates call her “Queen.” She says it’s very fitting and that she loves the name.
“Off the court, I’m very girly,” Kelly said. “But once it’s game time and I get between the lines, I’m just a fierce competitor. I feel like I turn into a whole different person when I’m on the court and when it’s game time again.
“I think that that’s where maybe the misconception can come,” Kelly said. “I think that’s what sets me apart from a lot of people because I can shift to kind of that dog mentality once I’m on the court and just be so mentally tough that nothing else matters in that moment but getting a win. Being able to shift that mentality, I think is a skill that I’ve definitely developed for sure.”
When Kelly’s UNC career is over, either after this season or after a fifth season, there’s no doubt she will leave Chapel Hill as program royalty.
Photos courtesy of UNC Athletics
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