Rashad McCants – "Time To Shine"
McCants: The Phenom 
(Note: If you dont’ like facts, I don’t want to lose you here.  Just jump to the next section.  It gets a lot more interesting)
Rashad McCants was born September 25th, 1984 in Asheville, NC.  McCants began his high school career at Erwin High School in Asheville, but finished at New Hampton High School in New Hampton, New Hampshire.He led New Hampton to the 2002 New Hampshire state championship and was named MVP of the title game.
McCants was a member of the UNC basketball team from 2002-2005. He was the leading vote-getter on the All-Atlantic Coast Conferece First Team as a sophomore, led the league in scoring, and was named 2nd-Team All-America. He helped lead UNC to win the ACC regular season and the 2005 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Championship with a 75-70 win over Illinois. Despite leaving after his Junior year at UNC, Rashad ranks 14th all-time in scoring, with 1721 points and is tied for second with 221 career three-point field goals.
McCants: The NBA Player
In June of 2005 the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Rashad with the 14th pick of the draft.  In his rookie season, McCants averaged a modest 7.9 points per game.  However, his arrival to the Timberwolves coincided with the team’s transition from an NBA super-power to a perrenial lottery participant.  Thanks to an enormous amount of roster turnover as well as Coach Dwane Casey’s inconsistent and often perplexing rotations, Rashad was never able to establish a defined role on the squad, and his rookie season was considered by most to be a disappointment. McCants’s attempt at redemption was foiled the following season when he was sidelined for most of the year after undergoing microfracture surgery. 
Rashad certainly has a lot to prove this upcoming season.  Not only is he healthy, but the Wolves revamped roster will give him ample opportunity to step up and play a large role on the team. What McCants will do with that opportunity remains to be seen.  Based on his earlier outings in the summer league and pre-season, it’s difficult to say what type of player Rashad will become.  One night he can be brilliant and drop 25 points.  The next he will completely disappear and be a non-factor.  If McCants is going to seize the opportunities that this contract year presents him, he most defintely will have to prove he can be consistently relied upon.  An amazing NBA career is there for the taking.  The 2007-08 season is Rashad McCant’s time to shine.
McCants: The Man
Of course there’s more to Rashad than just what we see on the basketball court.  Here are some fun facts I found on his website www.rashadmccants1.com:
  • His favorite musical artist is Lil Wayne
  • His Favorite movie is Paid In Full
  • Favorite book, 48 Laws of Power
  • For food, nothing beats Japanese.  He loves sushi.
  • His favorite sport other than basketball is without a doubt football
  • Favorite activity off the court, what else? Video games.
  • To get ready for a game he spends a lot of time visualizing it before it happens.
  • And a question he gets a lot is who His greatest influence is.  Well, it’s his mind.

    • Yes, I’ll repeat that.  It’s his mind.  I don’t know if that answer is ridiculously stupid, or just so deep that I can’t wrap my head around it.  I’ll give Rashad the benefit of the doubt and lean towards the latter.  The man is definitely a thinker.  Here’s some excerpts from his poetry:

     

    he came to me with open arms, like a hawk embracing his young,

    and he feed me food out his mouth but I was starving for knowledge.

    the type of knowledge that cant be feed by hand or voice, but by heart.

    so when he spoke he touched my soul, and my soul would smack me if I didn’t listen

    the words he spoke weren’t for the ears to hear.

    because his words were real, its hard to hear the truth when lies are so loud.
    That one was about KG, for those of you scoring at home. Pretty intense stuff, huh?  Here’s another..
    .

    My mind moves at a speed unknown to man, only because when I move I don’t move.

    If you timed my speed by an hour glass then you would wait a millennium to find out how fast I was.

    And you would still be wrong because I just lapped my own time a million times.

    So every grain of sand dropped through the hour glass  is 20 times slower than I am.

    I still got the speed of light mad because he cant beat me in a race, but I can only say its not me

    I was born with it.

     

    Yup, McCants’s mind is on a whole different level, and I’m not talking about Marbury after a dime bag "different level".  The man is cerebral. 
    I don’t know about you, but I like finding out this kind of stuff about our players.  It makes you want to root for them because they become more than just some guy with a jersey on.  If you want to find out more in-depth info about the members of this year’s team, keep checking the site every day until tip-off.