More McNealWritten by: Todd RosiakGreen Bay -- I'm stuck at Lambeau Field on Green Bay Packers draft duty, and it just dawned on me I didn't put up the interview I did Friday with Jerel McNeal regarding his decision to test the NBA draft waters.
So, here it is:
What went into the decision? Ever since the season ended it's been a long process. Being in the situation that I'm in, the whole process has never been that big of a deal to me because I always felt like I was in a good spot no matter what happens. No matter what I was doing I wouldn't hire an agent and I also had the option just to come back to school, and worse comes to worse I'll be back for my senior year and then it'll be the real thing after that. Throughout this whole process I was in a win-win situation no matter what I did, and the main thing is I was just trying to surround myself with people who were going to be honest with me and care about my future as much as I do. That was a big part of my decision-making process.
Did the manner in which you finished the season individually convince you to test the waters? It was always part of a plan since the end of last year. I felt like I was playing really well coming into the situation where I got hurt at the end of my sophomore year, and then coming into this year just being able to come through the whole season injury-free and playing at such a high level at the most important time of year, I think it opened a lot of peoples' eyes. I think more than anything it made other people realize that I could possibly be a pro one day and play in the NBA. But as far as me it's just something that I've been thinking about forever and something I've been dreaming about for a long time, and it's a level I feel I can play at. Not even feel, that I
know I can play at. That's just been my whole process, just thinking about everything that went on. But the end of the year definitely helped because I felt like it gave me a lot more exposure because everything that was being done was being done on a very big stage nationally.
Who's helped you the most throughout this whole process? More than anything I've been talking with Coach Williams, and basically he's been a big part of my support system. Also my family and my teammates, and they've done an unbelievable job. I know I'm around guys on the team that care about me as a person more than me as a player, and they have my best interests at heart no matter what - even if it may be me not coming back to school, if I pursue my dreams. They were telling me, ‘If you've got things that you need to do, you need to do it.' So between those guys and my family, my dad, my mom, my brother, my sister, everybody's been real supportive of me and just throwing pros and cons at me the entire time, telling me they're going to support me regardless of what I did.
Has Tom Crean been in contact with you since he left, and has he played a role in any of the fact-finding done on your behalf to this point? I have talked to Coach since he left, and he's given me information like he promised he would before he left. That was the plan before he got the job at Indiana, the fact that he was going to put my name into the process and see the feedback he got. He did a great job of following through because a lot of other people, it would have been easy to just forget about it, ‘I'm not there anymore; it's not my problem.' He did a good job of still getting in touch with me, and me getting in touch with him once or twice, and just telling me the information he got about me on the next level, because he has so many connections.
At any point during the process did you consider just hiring an agent and leaving regardless? No, not at all. It was a tough decision to even try to test the waters for me, just because I love being here so much and because I care so much about all my teammates. I still feel like I may not have ended my career the way I wanted to at Marquette, and I haven't won the way I wanted to at Marquette. It was a tough decision on its own, so it never crossed my mind to say, ‘I'm all in.' Those were the thoughts that were running through a lot of guys' heads when Coach first left, but I definitely wasn't into making any rash decisions or letting your emotions take over. But I let everything settle and Coach Williams got the head-coaching job, and it's been just an unbelievable atmosphere just being around my teammates and working out and being back in the gym. The team is stronger than ever right now.
Is your next order of business to secure an invitation to the pre-draft camp in Orlando? Right now I've got a couple of days until the deadline, then the next couple weeks you start getting an idea of whether you'll get the invite to Orlando. With such a deep draft this year you definitely can't take those types of things for granted, whether you'll get an invitation. We're just going to let things keep going the way they've been going and see what people say, and we'll have an idea of where that stands in a couple weeks.
Have you gotten any type of specific feedback from NBA teams or personnel to this point? It's a situation where they can't give you too many specifics because it differs from each team and each person, and everybody's probably saying something different. So all you can do is take all the things and just basically throw them in together: ‘I heard this, I heard this and I heard this.' You get somewhat of a feel for what everybody's saying and after a while you just draw your own conclusion about where you stand just based off the average. There's nothing so far with rounds, as far as that goes right now it's, ‘Hey, you could be a late first-rounder, a early-to-middle second-rounder.' It just depends so much on whether I do get the invite to Orlando, how I play and all those types of things. So right now a lot of it's up in the air. But the way I look at it I'm not concerned with any of that right now. I just hope I get an invitation to go out there and show my ability to play on that level.
Considering your size and the fact you'll project as a point guard at the next level, assuming you get the invite to Orlando do you feel like you'll have to prove down there that you can play that position in order to improve your stock? I had the same conversation with Coach Williams. You get down there and a lot of people make mistakes because they go out and try to do what everybody says they can't do, the knock on them as far as their weaknesses or what they need to get better at. I'm not that type of player. I'm not into that, going out there every day and proving that, ‘Hey, they said I can't play point guard. I've got to go out and play point guard.' Because if I did that, I wouldn't be me. That takes away from the strong points of my game. I think the main thing I'm going to do is I'm going to give you me. I told Coach Williams the same thing, at the end of the day if I go out there and play like myself and do what I do and play to my strengths, if that's not good enough for the NBA I'm fine with that and I'm content with that right now. I'll just have to come back another year, continue to get better and win in the process, try to get a championship and be with my teammates another year. I would never try to change the way I play based on what other people think about me and what I'm going to have to do at the next level. It's a situation where you either love me or you hate me. If what I have to offer isn't good enough, I'm not going to go out there and try to prove anything as far as position-wise. I do think I can play the point guard at the next level; I feel like I can play the point guard in college. It was just a situation where we've got so many guards on this team that there was no use in me doing that; that wasn't going to help the team at that point in time. My main focus here was just doing whatever I could to help the team win, and I'm going to continue to stay that way.
As far as underclassmen go, this is shaping up to be perhaps the deepest draft ever to this point. Is that a concern? It's unbelievable. All you've been hearing about the whole time is just how deep this draft is going to be, and how many guys are just going into it and leaving early and all that stuff. It's a deep draft but I'm excited -- especially if I get the chance to get that invitation to go to Orlando and go out there and play against some of those guys and prove myself.
http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/04/26/more-mcneal.aspx
