Rashad McCants retired from the NBA in 2009, and he returned to the professional scene in 2017 with BIG3. All told, he’s had a pretty impressive basketball career, ranging from his tenure with the UNC Tar Heels to his championship as a member of BIG3. In other words, he knows a thing or two, and he shared them with me in a discussion about UNC, the NBA, and more.

Rashad McCants Hypes Up Caleb Wilson

Rashad McCants’ alma mater, North Carolina, is having a great season. It’s been pretty up-and-down in Chapel Hill lately, with last year being a bit down. But they’re ranked 12th in the nation now and have one of the best players in the sport on the roster. What’s different about them this year? Well, it sure helps having that aforementioned player.

“I would pretty much say the recruiting class,” McCants said of the change from last season to this one. “Ca;eb Wilson probably stands out the most. He’s probably the most talented 5-star recruit we’ve had in the last 20 years, as far as just pure potential, raw talent, being able to forge a new style of play around someone like that, someone like a very athletic, skilled, Tyler Hansbrough-type of player that can change the game.”

McCants said that Hubert Davis, the coach who took over for Roy Williams, “doesn’t really have to do much” and can instead really let his players, namely Wilson, play. “The overall Carolina concept of play hard, play smart, play together around talent is always going to get you some results,” he added.

Getting five-star recruits hasn’t been a problem for the Tar Heels. Despite this new college landscape making things harder, UNC hasn’t suffered in recruiting. In the last several years, they’ve had Cole Anthony, Nassir Little, Ian Jackson, Elliot Cadeau, Caleb Love, Drake Powell, Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler, and Coby White, all of whom were five-star recruits.

For the most part, those players haven’t panned out quite as expected. Among those in the NBA, Kessler, who transferred out of UNC, might be the best. Coby White has a strong claim, but he’s not quite an All-Star. Among the most recent ones, Ian Jackson and Elliott Cadeau transferred out after last season.

Put simply, in McCants’ eyes, those players aren’t Caleb Wilson. He’s special. “Not a lot of guys are really formidable with that old school style, inside out, where you gotta kinda find your way as a guard, find your way as a big man, try to figure out how to bring about the best performances,” the former UNC star said.

Rashad McCants continued, “I think Caleb is one of the guys that you can see his potential shining inside of a system, but you can’t hold him inside of a system. He actually is growing before our eyes outside of the system, and the system has to kinda adapt around him now.”

The former Minnesota Timberwolves guard went on to compare him favorably to players like Cooper Flagg and Paolo Banchero, admitting that rival Duke has long had the five-star recruits that have largely panned out and been legitimately great players in college and the NBA. “I think this is our first time in years that we had that,” McCants said.

Rashad McCants Wouldn’t Change a Thing

There can be a temptation to wish you’d played in this era. It’s so much easier to make money playing college basketball than it ever has been. In Rashad McCants’ era, NIL and the transfer portal were essentially nonexistent. It’s a totally different sport now, but the UNC legend wouldn’t change a thing.

“I think the reason the kids are leaving now is because they’re afraid of the challenge,” he said. “They’re not setting specific goals within the structure of the university, the prestige, and the legacies of the universities they choose. For me, I went there to chase greatness behind Michael Jordan.”

McCants wanted to follow up Jordan and be a UNC icon himself. He wanted to win a championship and prove that he was good enough to get to the NBA. Now, he believes college players are into money and notoriety more than anything, saying they’re not as into respect for the game of basketball and the prestige of their schools.

The Problem with the NBA

Rashad McCants had a short career in the NBA, a league that is wholly different today than when he last played. Three-pointers are in, and defense, according to the critics, is out. McCants finds himself agreeing with that sentiment, and he believes it’s doing a disservice to basketball.

That’s leaving three-quarters of the game out of it. Talking about two facets of the game that’s dominated as far as scoring and shooting,” he said. “One of the most important things is defense, team chemistry. You’re talking about being in shape, holding yourself accountable, being on one string.”

He doesn’t believe there’s as much of a team dynamic in today’s NBA. “I think that is the biggest thing that makes the sport a lot less than it was before,” McCants continued. “The foundation of what we hold true, the essence of the game, the poetry of the game, the art of the game, the challenge, and the competitiveness of the game.”

What’s causing this problem? Not enough players are embracing the two-way nature of the game or the other areas of offense that are left out. But there are some that catch his eye. McCants named Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, and Giannis Antetokounmpo as players who can “embrace” a better version of basketball.

Some of those players, like Edwards and Wembanyama, were good from day one. Antetokounmpo was much more of a project, and he developed into a Hall of Famer and someone who remains one of the absolute best players in basketball, even in year 13.

Development is a struggle in today’s NBA, McCants believes. “Everybody’s skipping steps. I don’t think that there’s a lack of development. There is a lack of accountability to skip steps and think that once you get to the top level, you need to be developed,” he said.

Where can these players develop? In college. “That’s why they give you four years to develop,” he said. “If you skip those steps, then you’re going to find yourself in the NBA complaining about development. And then that’s where they’ve created the G League to create another level of a minor league-type development. And if you want to skip steps, you’re going to be pushed down to the minor leagues.”

He said that it feels almost “shameful” to go to the G League today. He also said if you’re a four-year college player who makes it to the NBA and still isn’t quite good enough, then that player just isn’t good enough to play at that level.

Because of this, McCants is “100%” in favor of changing the one-and-done rule in college. He admitted there are some players who could go after one year or even zero years in college, but most need a whole lot more time in college to develop than that.

In order to develop, McCants believes a certain mental toughness is needed. “I think that’s where my specific foundation and mindset, we preach a lot about mental toughness. And that is accepting challenges and persevering through them, ups and downs,” he revealed. “Going through the criticisms and the praises of being a college athlete and going through disappointments and the expectations that come along with it, it forges tough skin. It forces you to be mentally tough.”

If NBA players don’t have that and they skip some development steps, the inevitable “fall from grace” can hurt a whole lot more. “I would not want anyone to go through such things without preparation for it,” the former NBA star admitted.

Why BIG3?

Eventually, Rashad McCants turned to BIG3 in 2017, becoming one of the earliest players associated with the three-on-three league. He won the first championship that season, giving him that to go alongside his NCAA championship.

For McCants, it was all about one final chance to be competitive. “I was able to close a book on basketball as far as competitive. I hadn’t been in the spotlight in a while, and being able to be on a big stage where people could see me play for the last time,” he stated. “So I think for me, it was just being able to close the book, being around my peers one last tim,e and being able to say goodbye.”

He doesn’t miss it now. “I’m 41 years old,” he said. As for others, like LeBron James, who are still playing at advanced ages, he thinks more often than not that those players should clear out for the younger generation, James excluded. “I think that’s the one thing you can’t take away from him because he can still play at a high level at this age,” he said.

“Regardless of how much we love the game, just step aside. We’ve played enough. We’ve done enough.And there’s other aspects of the game that need help,” McCants concluded. “They need our attention. So I’ve never really been an advocate of playing beyond your age.”

Conclusion

Rashad McCants has some strong feelings on the current state of basketball, including what might be wrong with it. As a college superstar, an NBA pro, and a BIG3 champion, the player certainly knows a thing or two about the sport.