MCW in SI

[SWC75]

This weeks Sports Illustrated has an article by, (not on or an interview: he wrote it), Michael Carter-Williams. It's not on-line yet and I'd urge SU BB fans to get the issue. His major points:

- He comes from a strong family background and his mother is his manager so he's not spending money at the rate of the other young players he sees in the league.

- He's in favor of raising the league's minimum age to 20 and most NBA players are. it would improve both college ball and the NBA because the players coming into the league would be more physically and mentally mature.

- He feels he benefits from going to SU for two years because of all he learned on and off the court and his own development, again physical and mental. He didn't feel he was ready after the first year but did after his second year and the run to the Final Four gave him a chance to be a lottery pick and "which helped me make the choice to leave. If it wasn't for that exposure and all the development I'd experienced my first two years, I might have returned for another season."

- College is a better place to develop than the D-Leagues because of the off-court experiences and the history of the programs and the rivalries.

- He's not against athletes being paid but doesn't believe it would do anything to keep them in school because the schools would never pay what the pros would.

- The NBA is a "culture shock to your body" and the ups and downs he had at Syracuse helped prepare him the long season, although playing for a 15-47 team has been tough.

Mike's going to a featured player in "Summer Dreams", a "Hard Knocks-style look at the NBA summer leagues to be shown at 8PM EDT on CBS on Saturday. (Our AACT game would be at 3PM so there will be no conflict.)

 

[CuseTG2003]

Thanks for sharing. Surprised to hear most NBA players support raising the minimum age to 20.

 

[Ghost]

This one talks a lot about MCW (from Grantland) and how Philly is ruining his development in their quest for him to win ROY and salvage something for the season (since they're tanking). The gist is more or less that they should just have him sit down with an injury, because he's not learning anything playing with a bunch of scrubs, and having him go all-out for the Rookie award (and is probably teaching him all sorts of bad habits):

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-bag-volume-2-10-steps-to-tanking-perfection/

 

[Melancer46]

Can't say enough about how proud I am of how he's adjusted to the NBA. Representing the university proudly.

Also, figure I might as well post this here. If anyone wants to go see him play, they're having a Syracuse University Alumni Appreciation game against the Memphis Grizzlies coming up. If you go to their site and enter MCWSU as the promo code, you can buy discounted tickets to go see him play.

I was fortunate enough to go see him play for my birthday (thanks to my girlfriend) and got picked out of the crowd to do one of their halftime games and I won a huge bag of 76ers gear. I had an awesome time even though they lost (to the Thunder that night).