By Sam Perley, hornets.com
Welcome to Out of Bounds…A weekly series that dives deeper into the issues fans might not know the whole story about. Our Hornets players will give you insight into topics like traveling, hobbies, injuries, trades and everything in between throughout the NBA season.
The NBA fraternity is comprised of hundreds of players who spent time at a wide range of universities and colleges, each one of them with his own unique experiences and reflections about what that time meant personally before coming into the league. With the NCAA tournament winding down, a handful of Hornets shared their own collegiate experiences and what the relationship is like between other players in the NBA from their alma mater.
The Wildcat
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was just 17 years old when he stepped onto the campus at the University of Kentucky, which historically has been one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the history of the NCAA, although it had been in a championship drought since 1998. Along with future first-rounds picks Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones and Marquis Teague, Kidd-Gilchrist and the Wildcats took the NCAA by storm during the 2011-12 season with a dominating 38-2 record and a victory over the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Championship game. Three years later, the Hornets forward reflected on the magical season in Lexington.
“I had committed there at first but didn't know what it was like at Kentucky,” admitted MKG. “I went to the campus and was like ‘Whoa, it’s like its own little city, own little town’. There were fans everywhere and it just kept us going the whole season. All the support, all the love [and] all the fans, man, it was mind-blowing.”
The Kentucky program has also churned out more NBA talent than any other school in the last five years, most notably of which include John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Brandon Knight and Davis, along with Kidd-Gilchrist. MKG provided some insight on the relationship between the Kentucky players in the NBA even if they didn’t necessarily attend school concurrently.
“It’s a family between us. There’s a lot of respect from all the guys – from Wall to Knight to Davis to me,” said MKG. “There’s a lot of respect. We give a lot of respect to each other and a lot of praise… It’s really like a brotherhood.”
The Tar Heel
When Marvin Williams signed with the Hornets last offseason, it also meant returning to the state where he won an NCAA Championship with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2004-05 season. Like Kidd-Gilchrist, Williams also played at a very established college basketball program that he had his eyes on from the first time he picked up a basketball while growing up in Bremerton, Washington.
“For me to be a Tar Heel [was] a dream come true,” said Williams. “Growing up, my father was raised in North Carolina, so Carolina basketball was all he taught me. I remember watching Head Coach Dean Smith instructional videos when I was a kid in the living room doing the things we was telling us to do. I remember wearing Carolina sweatsuits when I was growing up. So it means a little bit more to me to be an alumni from Carolina – to be able to play at that program and to have a degree from that university.”
After playing in the NBA for over a decade now, Williams has certainly seen his role shift to that of a seasoned veteran, which he exemplifies not only on the Hornets team, but also towards incoming rookies throughout the league – particularly from UNC.
“Its kind of fun to be one of the older guys now,” Williams laughed. “I remember when I was one of the younger guys and the older guys [like] Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood were checking in on me. Now its kind of our duty to check in on [players like] Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Harrison Barnes and even Tyler [Hansbrough]…I just ate dinner with Tyler when he came into town and he and I have developed a great relationship over the years. It is fun to see those guys – like P.J. Hairston – grow up and live out their dream since us vets have all kind of done the same thing,”
Williams also added it doesn’t take too long for the rookies to be called upon for advice when they become second-year players, especially at a school that produces such a large amount of NBA talent.
“The young guys now are doing the same thing,” he said. “Tyler, John, Harrison are always checking in on P.J. and Reggie [Bullock of the Los Angeles Clippers] and seeing how they're doing, and next years wave of guys will get the same treatment from P.J. and those guys.”
The Ram
Sometimes overlooked in the myriad Hornets players from big-time college programs is Troy Daniels who played at Virginia Commonwealth University during its surprising run to the NCAA Final Four in 2011 despite barely qualifying for the tournament in the first place. Daniels was a sophomore at VCU then and takes special pride in being part of the run that few college basketball fans predicted.
“[That season meant] a lot. Its something that’s going to follow me and that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life,” he said. “We were definitely not picked to go into the tournament and [as an] an 11 seed we had to play [in the First Four just] to get into the tournament. We had to overcome a lot of adversity and I think thats what we did and it means a lot,” says Daniels.
Despite going undrafted in 2013, Daniels went on to become only one of seven NBA players to ever come out of the nationally-emerging mid-major program at Virginia Commonwealth. Daniels admitted the achievement is not lost on him, as he also got help along the way from former-VCU and NBA players, Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders.
“[Coming from VCU] means a lot. Its been a fun journey. I'm actually the first NBA player (VCU Head Coach) Shaka Smart has coached and that means a lot to me too,” said Daniels. “I just feel like I have to hold my end of the bargain and show guys there are different ways to get to the league than getting drafted.”
Not Just a Stepping Stone
In an era where it’s perceived that one-and-done collegiate players are more concerned with just using the NCAA as a stepping stone to the NBA, there truly is an exceptional amount of school pride with any player you ask, regardless of what the experience or longevity was at their respective programs. A player’s school spirit can perhaps be viewed as a unique characteristic of a player’s personality in a league where the environments are rightfully catered more towards the team and less towards the individual. Based on the feedback from these Hornets, fans can sometimes be quick to dismiss the true importance and meaningfulness of the time spent by NBA players at the collegiate level and to which regard they hold those experiences even after years in the league.