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The son of a former world-class sprinter, Rodney Carney was born to run. Fortunately for the 76ers, who jumped at the chance to work a Draft Night deal with Chicago to snatch the 22-year-old Indianapolis native with the No. 16 pick, it’s apparent he can do a whole lot more than just running.
Andre Iguodala says Carney, the player he’s most likened to, who set records and averaged 14.3 points and 4.9 rebounds over the past four seasons while playing at Memphis, is a better dunker than he even is.
Second-year coach Maurice Cheeks says he’s been impressed with Carney’s defensive abilities as well as the little things so essential to winning. If the early signs from their European training camp (where Carney's clutch game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds stunned the Phoenix Suns over in Germany) followed by the rest of the pre-season are any indication, then it shouldn't take long before the personable Carney becomes an integral part of the rotation.
Carney’s just thrilled to be a part of the team.
“I have high expectations,” said Carney, before the Sixers European adventure got underway. “If I get the chance to play, I’ll try to make the best of my ability. If not, I’ll sit back and learn. It’s a win-win situation for me. Either way, I’m with great vets that can teach me a lot. I’m going to get a great experience no matter what.”
Such perspective and level-headedness is by far the exception in the NBA these days, rather than the rule.
Rodney Carney is the exception in a lot of ways. For one thing, he went against the flow of the rest of his peers by electing to skip AAU ball after his junior and senior year at Indianapolis’ Northwest High. For another, his ticket to the NBA is defense, the aspect of the game most players perform only grudgingly.
For Rodney, though, it’s always been “No D. No P.T.”
In college, “Coach Cal (Calipari) was NBA-minded,” said Carney of the man who ran the Nets’ ship for just over two seasons, then spent a year here under Larry Brown, before heading down to Tennessee. “He always told us, ‘If you don’t play defense, you’re not gonna play.’ ”
“He wasn’t worried about you scoring points. He was worried about you stopping guys on the other team.”
According to Calipari, defense — along with the knack of knocking down the big shot, going to the glass, and coming up with key steals — has always been Carney’s forte.
“Philly is a rough town for athletes and coaches,” said Calipari, who currently has several players from his program in the pros. “However, as long as those people know you’re
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playing hard and trying they’ll be with you. I told him to be who you are and they’ll love you. He’s a driven young man.”
Driven, in fact, by some of the best. Start with Mom, who was known as DeAndra Ware back when she was tearing up the track in the late 70s and early 80’s. “She has a ton of trophies but she didn’t get to go to the Olympics because of the boycott (President Jimmy Carter's boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow due to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan),” said Carney, whose father, Ron Hollins, was an athlete as well, playing football at Tennessee State.
“I know it bothered her a lot. She beat Flo Jo (the late gold medalist sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner) and Evelyn Ashford (another top rated American sprinter). She beat her repeatedly. I have pictures of it.”
Like his mom, Carney became a sprinter too — and a good one. He began to break records winning on a regular basis. As he grew and his muscles developed, his track focus changed as well. Before long, (after
tearing a muscle in his hip), Carney had turned from the track to the less glamorous field event of high jumping. As a senior, he won State with a leap of 6-11.
Following in his mother’s footsteps could only sustain Rodney for so long. All the while he was competing in track and field, he was also perfecting his skills on the hardwood, playing for a coach whose name should be familiar to those who remember Bobby Knight’s unbeaten 1976 National Championship Indiana Hoosiers.
While Scott May, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner were the stars of the last team to run the NCAA table without a blemish, rugged small forward Bobby Wilkerson is often forgotten.
Following a seven-year career playing for four NBA teams, Wilkerson, who had to be carried off the old Spectrum floor after suffering a concussion in the championship game against Michigan, began putting his energy into coaching at the high school level. Some 20 years later his prize pupil became none other than Rodney Carney.
“He said, ‘Defense is the key,’ ” recalled Carney of those invaluable lessons. “He taught me the basics of basketball.”
Carney recalled some of the basics that his Coach taught him. “How to play guys. How to turn them certain ways. He taught me that people respect you when you play defense.”
Wilkerson did more than just teach Carney the basic nuances of the game. He also gave him critical advice that paid bigger dividends than Rodney could've ever imagined. It was following his junior season that Carney sought his coach’s advice on the best way to spend his summer vacation.
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