Cool article. May be just me, but it's always interesting to see the reaction to MCW-related threads/topics - have the sense that MCW is simply not as "liked" or "popular" as other former SU players; that people here aren't rooting for him/following his career as much as they do others. And I've just never understood why.
To me, MCW is one of the most under-appreciated players/former players in recent SU bball history. I think he's a great ambassador for the SU program & in just his short time at SU, played a big role in helping the SU program - some of his attributes, as I see them:
- a guy who is articulate & smart (pretty sure he was on the deans list most of his time at SU & did I see he was also continuing to pursue his degree?),
- seems to have great relationship with his family (parents are both former/current basketball players/coaches, his little brothers are also beginning to be recruited by schools),
- makes headlines for doing the "right" thing most often (like saving his NBA paychecks & living on "other" earnings),
- always seems to speak highly of his time at Syracuse, "reps" the program & often comes back to help out at things like the summertime Elite Camp (working with perspective recruits),
- obviously its great that he had such a productive (individual, not exactly team success) rookie year in the NBA, culminating in his winning the Rookie of the Year award, which I'd imagine only helps the SU program in recruiting/status,
- and, of course, he was the driving force (IMO) behind SU's most recent Final Four appearance, which, again, is so important to have for recruiting/program status type of conversations.
It's my belief that the apparent lack of appreciation for MCW ultimately stems from that long-ago little shopping incident he had, and how he dealt with that situation...feel like that really just rubbed many people the wrong way, and to this day that has resulted in people here not "warming" to the kid. Throw in fact that his ultra-competitve nature on the court often lead to his "whining" to refs about calls and sometimes seeming to act like a brat when things didn't go his way...and I guess that is enough to justify certain people just not coming around on MCW?
I don't know, this is all just my opinion - but, if true, I'd love for people to reconsider their feelings for MCW, because I feel like he's a pretty valuable resource for this program, even to this day. And if he does continue to play well in the NBA (as I suspect he will) & blossoms into a star player, I love being able to say he represents Syracuse University.
