Hit up TarheelDaily, or scroll on down to the article. After you check it out, if you want to discuss my opinions, email me. I will also appear on WXYC FM 89.3 Chapel Hill for Sunday Night SportsRap during the Fall of 2004 on Sunday Nights between 9-10PM. Also, be sure to check out my weekly music show, 'Fifteen Feet and In' which can be heard at www.wxyc.org, during the Fall of '04 between 8-10AM. Enjoy the article.....BD

Product of the Environment

What would a Carolina basketball season be without a little controversy?
Rashad McCants' 'jail' analogy is not sitting well with many UNC supporters, but Bret Dougherty asks 'Who is to blame?'

October 22, 2004

You didn't think that the season could start without a little drama in the UNC basketball camp, did you?...Should we really expect anything different from the new guard of players at Carolina?

Yes, a whirlwind already surrounds the 2004-05 UNC basketball season -- and what better protagonist could there be than the oft- controversial Rashad McCants to kick off the drama for the Heels this year? Statements by the 20 year-old junior in a recent WRAL interview -- where he compared his life at Carolina to being in "jail" and likened his basketball career in Chapel Hill to a "9 to 5 job" -- have certainly landed him in hot water, and since then the critics have been slicing carrots and prepping the spices for the stew of his boiling carcass.

However, while the Carolina community and the basketball world settle the details of how McCants should be crucified for his words, maybe those folks should really be examining the paths that led up to his statement, before they stoke that fire.

It is more than well-documented that Rashad McCants has done very little throughout his career to warrant the belief that he can be a team-player in a system that evangelizes team-play. The stories that swirl around McCants' brooding bench displays, those long, bewildering stares into space, and his dismissal from the USA Basketball team this summer have never prompted anyone to nominate Rashad McCants as the "Baby Jesus" of the Carolina Basketball world.

To his credit, even before the WRAL interview, McCants has not short-changed the Tarheel faithful wth regard to his intentions; he has candidly stated that the NBA and a life in professional basketball are his ultimate goals. However, despite his statements and his actions as an individual, many Carolina insiders are astounded that he is not buying into the team style that the Carolina system pounds into the psyche of each of its players. In fact, with talk swirling here in Chapel Hill this fall about better team chemistry and about his dedication to team play, an underground love-fest had actually begun to embrace McCants as a leader in the mecca of college basketball.

But after taking a good look at McCants' exploits in Chapel Hill up until this point, one must wonder how the Asheville junior could be expected to be a leader in the team concept.

When he arrived on campus, McCants was instantly anointed the savior of a team that had gone 8-20 the previous year and that also had just seen its storied tradition of seniority decimated by graduation, NBA hardship, and transfers. From the moment he signed to come to Carolina along with Raymond Felton and Sean May, McCants was identified as the leader of a storied class that would set the tone for the present and future of UNC basketball.

After his arrival, UNC Basketball and Nike soon backed that freshman hype by choosing to place the number "32" on each Carolina jersey that would be sold throughout every Foot Locker, Eastbay Magazine, fan site, and sportswear store across the country. To pump the attention to another level, the UNC marketing brain-trust distanced McCants' image from that of any 'team' concept even more by blaring his face along with the statement of "Let's make some NOISE!" on the new Smith Center video board seemingly during every tight-game situation.

Receiving that type of star-treatment, it would be difficult for anyone to think in terms of reality, much less ... team play ... and "The Carolina Way".

So, where will the love go?...Well, if Rashad McCants, had used the words "lunch pail and a hard-hat" in his interview, rather than "nine-to-five" and "jail", a lot of people in the Carolina basketball world would have been very pleased by the young man's focus. In fact, if his statement had not included the now-famous "jail" analogy -- if his comments had explained that he was balancing life by treating his class attendance, mid-terms, and workouts as a "9 to 5 job" -- a very large contingency of the Carolina faithful would have exalted McCants for his observance of a very disciplined life that could carry him to his dream of playing professional ball.

Yet, because McCants made a ridiculous analogy while voicing his commitment to a focused season, his comparison will probably find itself subject the same ridicule and scorn that Kellen Winslow Jr. received after making his infamous, "I'm a solider!" claim in 2003. Like Winslow Jr.'s dubious statement, McCants' proclamation really is only mirroring the pop culture environment. For goodness sakes, he belongs to a world that extols the virtues of Kanye West and a basketball world that respects "Hook" Mitchell above Jameer Nelson.

As Roy Williams has correctly pointed out, McCants' quote will probably be dropped for years to come on every star recruit who might be questioning his choice to become a part of the Carolina system. McCants has not only unleashed what will become favored ammunition for people who want to attack Carolina, but his distorted interview may also have inadvertently pinned the most searing label on the program since Kenny Anderson's infamous "I didn't want to be another horse in Dean Smith's stable." quote.

In the end, Carolina basketball should be concerned neither with snide remarks on the recruiting trail, nor with the inevitable labeling of McCants as a malcontent or a self-absorbed, moody, prima-donna for his statement. It seems obvious that McCants has spent way too many minutes watching 106 & Park and thinking that the newly-adopted discipline that he took from Jordan Fundamentals Camp in Santa Barbara two months ago is analogous to prison life.

However, what the Carolina community should really be more concerned with is the reasoning behind why a 20 year-old student-athlete is screaming out for attention by inking "Born to Be Hated" and "Dying to Be Loved" on his arms. The question that should be asked is, why did he feel comfortable making the prison-life analogy in his interview, despite spending time at one of the nation's top public universities?

With Rashad's statement of "I honestly thought my career was over," it is obvious that he took a long look (after his WRAL interview became public) at how quickly things can change in the pop life. However, before the UNC basketball community crucifies McCants for those statements, maybe we all should keep in mind how relentlessly this young man has been pushed into the spotlight since his arrival in Chapel Hill. A look back at recent history may show that he is trying to interpret a world that has been sending him some mixed messages.

From The Corner,

BD

Bret Dougherty is a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bret is a host of WXYC FM 89.3 SportsRap, and hosts a music show on WXYC called 'Fifteen Feet and In' between 8-10AM. Check in at his website, www.bretdougherty.com, and feel free to contact him at bret.dougherty@onebox.com.

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