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If you’re a parent searching for a role model for your son — or the son himself — you may want to give Creighton Bluejays forward Doug McDermott a look.
Not only is the 6-foot-8, 225-pounder returning for his senior season despite the fact that he would’ve been a potential lottery pick in June’s NBA Draft, but he’ll be doing so as a walk-on.
How is this possible, you ask?
Because he didn’t allow the allure of money to draw him away from college basketball.
Because he placed team above self.
Because his father, Greg McDermott, is Creighton’s head coach?
Make no mistake, no matter what type of punctuation I used at the end of the previous sentence, what McDermott chose to do on Tuesday, when he made the decision to give his scholarship — the program’s final one — to teammate Grant Gibbs so that the guard can receive a sixth year of eligibility, is extremely noble. So noble, in fact, that it’s downright crazy.
In today’s age of glitz and glam, of multi-million-dollar contracts and endorsement deals, you rarely see an athlete give up so much for the sake of his squad — especially a two-time All-American such as McDermott.
“He’s all about the team, he makes us all better,” Gibbs told USA TODAY Sports last spring.
There’s no questioning that after Tuesday’s developments, but how does McDermott’s father feel about paying between $30,000-40,000 for his son’s tuition?
“From my perspective, it’s worth it to pay for Doug’s tuition to have a player of Grant’s caliber (on scholarship). It was really the only option,” he told USA TODAY Sports.
So there you go. Everybody’s happy that the Bluejays will return four starters from last year’s 28-8 team to help them compete in the new Big East.
And I’m glad to hear that people like Doug McDermott still exist.
Josh McKinney is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @SuperJMac32, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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