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Message: [QUOTE="Gonzo, post: 134013, member: 814"] About a week or so ago there were a few posts that suggested Mookie Jones had become a sort of joke in terms of his role on the team and as a fan favorite. I do not know Mookie personally but I do live in Westchester County near his hometown of Peekskill. And I can share a story that shows how far Mookie has come as a person and how his new maturity reflects everything that is right with college sports and the entire college experience. Several years ago when Mookie was a sophomore in high school, my son was playing CYO hoops. One evening we played a team from Cortlandt Manor which is directly adjacent to Peekskill. Before the game I struck up a conversation with some of the Cortlandt parents. At some point the topic turned to Peekskill's high school team and Mookie's name came up. An African-American woman who had not been part of the conversation, suddenly interjected and proclaimed Mookie to be a PUNK. I was caught way off guard by the derisive tone of her voice and asked her why she felt this way. She was a remedial education teacher at Peekskill HS and Mookie was one of her students. She said Mookie put zero effort into his classes. And when called in for a meeting regarding his academic situation, Mookie showed up with a lawyer and someone she labeled as an agent (whatever exactly that meant). She had nothing good to say about Mookie and was quite vocal about it (she also labeled Hilton Armstrong as a punk while complimenting Elton Brand as first-class). There was clearly a group of people in Peekskill hoping to turn Mookie into paydirt. I also know that at least some of the people in Mookie's camp did not want him to attend Syracuse out of concern that he would not get enough PT here. Despite this Mookie opted for Orange as we all know. And despite various displays of public dissatisfaction with the PT that he got his first couple of years, he opted to stay, also as we all know. Fast forward to now and we have a young man recognizes his role on the team, doesnt complain at all and seems to be one of the biggest cheerleaders on the bench. Much more importantly, he has made a college degree his priority over playing basketball. He made a conscious decision to stay. The maturity that Mookie has shown cannot be complimented more. He is a big a winner as anyone on the team or at the whole university for that matter. [/QUOTE]

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