Rashad McCants will give D-League paycheck to charity

[Busch Legion]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba-290216

Once thought of as the NBA's next great shooting guard, Rashad McCants(notes) has had a disappointing few years in professional basketball. After being an all-world recruit and national champion at North Carolina, McCants stumbled in Minnesota for the better part of four seasons and did little in Sacramento after a trade. For the last two years, he's been seeking jobs in training camps, hoping to find a steady paycheck in the NBA.

Yet despite this lack of success, McCants still has a great deal of talent, enough to make him worth a shot for a team in desperate need of scoring. This disconnect between McCants's ample talent and inability to attract NBA teams even made him the subject of an article in ESPN The Magazine this summer.

McCants now has a steady job with the Texas Legends of the NBDL, which at least puts him on track to rejoin the NBA ranks at some point in time. But as noted by ESPN's Marc Stein in his piece on the signing, McCants might have had some more reasons for staying in America:

The maximum salary in the D-League is $25,500 -- well shy of the $2.6 million McCants earned in his last season in the NBA with Minnesota and Sacramento in 2008-09 -- but the source said McCants intends to donate his Legends checks to the Urban Born youth and teen charity foundation (http://www.urbanborn.org/).

That's a small sum by NBA standards -- roughly similar to a moderate fine -- but it's still an impressive gesture. As McCants told FanHouse's Scott Schroeder, he has been working with Urban Born for some time now:

"I think that playing in the D-League is the quickest option to return to the NBA," McCants told FanHouse. "My decision to stay in the states and enter the D-League was solely based upon my family needs and working with the underprivileged youth and misunderstood kids."

McCants has been very active in helping underprivileged youth this past season while preparing to return to the NBA.

"It is in my passion to help the next generation through Urban Born and Generation 1 Foundation to get to the next level of life, McCants continued. "Regardless if I return to the NBA or not, my pursuit to enhancing the next generation will not stop."

According to Stein, McCants had also weighed more lucrative offers from foreign teams before settling on the Legends. That information -- and copious quotations from McCants' advisers in Schroeder's piece -- suggest that the key reason for staying in the United States was to get a better shot at returning to the NBA, not to help these organizations.

Still, this is excellent work from McCants. A cynic would claim that he is only using these charities to rehabilitate his image, but based on typical NBA spending habits, that D-League salary is likely a large portion of his current net worth. That's a very generous gift for the charities and a sign from McCants that he means business.

It's also a reminder that a player's on-court personality doesn't necessarily define the kind of person he is off the court. Over the past few years, McCants has been decried as a selfish gunner who cares little about helping his teammates. He seems much different in his relationship with Urban Born and Generation 1, though, and he should be singled out for those contributions. Even if this comeback fails, McCants' season can be considered a success for what he's doing for kids in need of help.

I wonder if he ever will get another NBA shot.

[Chance1117]

I remember watching warm ups for summer league at target center. McCants was injured so I didn't expect to see him on the court. Then I saw a guy drain 4-5 3's from well beyond the arc and it was McCants. It was impressive. I think his biggest impediment was his mind not his game.

I also remember my car dying on 94 on the way to that game! Good thing my friend and I drove separate.

[Calinks]

Classy move. I will follow his D-League stats.

[jack612]

I can't believe the max D-League salary is $25,500!

[teven_1]

We have a need at 2 guard...can we give this guy a chance?
Can he be worse than Wayne Ellignton (not that I Thikn Wayne is bad, I just think Mccants is pretty good)
Read a lot of articles on him, it's like he's been blackballed apparently

[lewdog]

We have a need at 2 guard...can we give this guy a chance?
Can he be worse than Wayne Ellignton (not that I Thikn Wayne is bad, I just think Mccants is pretty good) Read a lot of articles on him, it's like he's been blackballed apparently

Repression is god's greatest gift.

[Tha Juice]

I tip my hat off to this guy, classy move. I wish him the best in D-League and hopefully gets a chance to return and play well in the NBA.

[shangrila]

I wouldn't mind giving him another shot

[eyeteeth]

I wish Rashad McCants the best of luck. Humility and empathy are rare qualities in NBA culture, and his quotes in that piece show strong evidence of both traits. It is much to his credit.

If he can ever perceive the flow of the game appropriately and balance his emotions and motivation enough to bring his A game every night and not be a black hole with the ball, he will be an NBA player again. But I would guess it will be somewhere else.

[big3_8_19_21]

We all hated him when he was here, outside of one productive year in 07-08. I don't see the point, really. I don't think he's a headcase, though. I think he's Michael Beasley-esque in that his tarnished public image is mostly due to the media because he's not as sunny and eloquent as guys like Jonny Flynn and Wes Johnson. Also like Beasley, he's got huge natural talent but hasn't put it together (Beas hasn't shown his elevated play for a sustained period of time yet) and can ride emotions both up and down on the court.

Well, I'm starting to talk myself into it. He's athletic, he can shoot, and he actually did perform pretty well when he was properly guided and coached. How many reclamation projects can one team turn around? That would be pretty strange if we managed to turn around the careers of Beasley, Darko and McCants.

Still, I don't see it happening. With Webster coming back, plus the apparent insistence that Wes is a 2 guard and the fact that we exercised the team option for next year on Ellington I can't see us rolling the dice on McCants unless we're hit with a significant injury bug at the 2/3.

[Yes We Kahn]

I would have no problem with taking a chance on him.. actually I am all for it. He would come very cheaply and this coaching staff might be good for him. It would be worth a shot. I felt this same way the last time a Shaddy thread popped up.

If it didn't work, oh well. But if it did, there's our 2-guard or at least a punch off the bench. I think it would be a low risk move as I think his "attitude problems" were more perceived and exaggerated by the media than anything else.

[Basti]

I wouldn't be opposed to give him a 10 day contract and see how he handles himself.

[Krapinsky]

I wouldn't be opposed to give him a 10 day contract and see how he handles himself.

When would he play?

[Yes We Kahn]

I wouldn't be opposed to give him a 10 day contract and see how he handles himself.

When would he play?

When Brewer sits on the bench.

[Basti]

I wouldn't be opposed to give him a 10 day contract and see how he handles himself.

When would he play?

Give him Wayne's minutes. That of course is until Webbster returns. If Shad actually played well until then I'd give him a full roster spot and see what Wayne or Corey could fetch (high 2nd rounder from a playoff team that got a 2nd rounder from a worse team for example).

However, that's pretty unlikely to happen.

[Calinks]

I would thoroughly enjoy bringing him back and seeing him finally overcome his issues and shine but I really don't see it happening for a number of reasons. Still, if he plays well, he has a shot of landing on an NBA roster. Where do you think he could wind up and be of use?

[shangrila]

Honestly? He could be of some use to us, depending on what this experience has done for him. If he's willing to work on both ends of the floor and play a team game then he could help fill some of the offensive void that happens on the wing when Beasley goes out.

I had a question though; wasn't he our team captain for a little while? I vaguely remember something like that and how he was doing really well with the added responsibility before Wittman took it upon himself to destroy everything he could on this team.

[Busch Legion]

I swore I read before the season began of Minnesota actually showing interest of trying him out......

[TheProdigy]

I admire Rashad for his generousity and caring for children. That's rare for pro athletes. However, he's 26 years old already and we already have difficulty distributing minutes. When Webster comes back it's going to be chaos. Let's continue with what we're doing and develop our young guys. Best of luck to Shad.

[Yes We Kahn]

I admire Rashad for his generousity and caring for children. That's rare for pro athletes. However, he's 26 years old already and we already have difficulty distributing minutes. When Webster comes back it's going to be chaos. Let's continue with what we're doing and develop our young guys. Best of luck to Shad.

Is 26 old? He's only a year and a half older than Brewer. I don't think age would be the limiting factor. I do hear you about the minutes, but I would gladly take away Wayne's and then Corey's minutes to take a look at Rashad. I am in love with the idea of an effective Shaddy coming off of the bench to provide a scoring punch with the second unit. Now... I realize that effective is the key word, but I think it is worth at least a 10 day tryout before Webster returns.

The sooner we see less Corey, the better. I love his energy but I am tired of his lack of body control, flailing towards the basket, throwing up wild prayer "lay-ups," etc.