Courtesy of LehighSports.com
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Media Relations
Former Lehigh men’s basketball standout and current Portland Trail Blazers star C.J. McCollum ’13 was awarded the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award in April.
McCollum began his acceptance press conference by spending more than five minutes thanking everyone around him – from his teammates to his coaches, friends, family and more – because he knew he wouldn’t be where he is today without their help.
“A lot of people have helped me over the course of my career, not just from Lehigh University and my high school, but even back to my childhood,” said McCollum. “My family has pushed me to get to this point, to work hard, to be consistent, to be loyal to the game and understand that you get out of it what you put in.
“It wasn’t all about him; he always appreciated that it also was about the team of people who helped along the way,” said Lehigh Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett.
That team of people included a support staff at Lehigh, which played a role in McCollum’s development into the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
Improvement is an important word within the department. It’s a philosophy that helps drive the department’s engine.
“Our developmental goal of ‘Better Me, Better We’ is focused on being the best version of yourself, which makes our teams better,” said Sterrett. “Improvement is a big part of our expectation.”
McCollum is validation that what Lehigh’s doing is working.
“I realize that I’m lucky to be in this position,” said McCollum. “I’ll always remember where I came from.”
Development at Lehigh
McCollum entered Lehigh as a skinny freshman from Canton, Ohio who was super talented, but nowhere near the all-around player he is today. As a freshman in high school, he was barely over five feet tall. Although his size turned away some schools, it didn’t detract Lehigh.
“One of the things that stood out right away was the persistence of Coach (Matt) Logie and Coach (Brett) Reed,” said McCollum. “We were in contact as much as the NCAA allowed. It was a priority for them. With the in-home visit, Coach Reed came during a crazy storm when the power was out. We ended up doing our meeting in the dark.
“I knew how serious they were about me and I knew it was a great opportunity where I could get a good education from a prominent school, and play basketball at the same time.”
McCollum is the epitome of the type student-athlete Lehigh identifies. Lehigh looks to identify someone like McCollum, a quality individual and talented athlete, who has room to grow and tremendous upside. Most importantly, he had the desire and work ethic to improve.
McCollum turned that work ethic into results, with the help of a strong array of support staff. The two-time Patriot League Champion, and Player of the Year, McCollum took advantage of what was at his disposal.
One example is in the weight room. By his junior year of high school, McCollum was 5-feet-11-inches and stood over six feet by the time he got to Lehigh, but he still had a long way to go.
“C.J. committed himself to the weight room and transformed a body that wasn’t even a Division I body into a body that was not seen as a major liability by a professional sports league,” said Sterrett.
“(Head strength and conditioning coach) Eric Markovcy and (assistant strength coach) Owen Breininger are people I worked with very closely,” said McCollum. “Throughout my career, we spent a lot of time together, especially once I broke my foot my senior year. I spent every day in there boxing, upper body lifting and doing core exercises, just trying to do different things to continue improving my strength. The strength and conditioning staff at Lehigh was a big part of why I was able to make the transition to the next level.”
Academically, McCollum was very solid entering college, but greatly improved as his Lehigh career progressed.
“C.J. was a young man who was always driven, but needed some guidance to optimize his abilities,” said Sterrett. “He came in as a competent student and left a member of the Dean’s List several times, really maximizing his abilities in the classroom.”
Another program in place is the leadership development curriculum. McCollum was a three-year captain at Lehigh and turned from a quiet individual into someone who led by example, and wasn’t afraid to speak up when needed.
“(Director for Athletics Leadership Development) Julie Ammary was crucial in my development,” said McCollum. “We had so many meetings just discussing the team, discussing how to get all these personalities to mesh. I was a liaison for the coaching staff, bouncing ideas off them, talking to the team and figuring out ways to constructively get better.”
When first entering Lehigh, McCollum didn’t understand the importance of leadership development, but learned to embrace it.
“I was focused on obtaining a degree and being a good basketball player, but I didn’t see early on how important leadership would be the rest of my life, not just in basketball,” he said. “It’s important to be able to lead, direct and coexist with others.”
Thinking back, something else McCollum experienced at Lehigh, a season-ending injury, also allowed him to grow – and it paid dividends in his NBA career.
“Through his senior-year injury, C.J. really learned a lot about the rehabilitation, care-for-your-body part of the process, which accelerates exponentially when you get to the professional ranks,” said Sterrett.
“I think you really learn about yourself and others when you’re put in uncomfortable situations and you’re outside your comfort zone,” said McCollum. “It was good for me to face those challenges, for when I ended up fracturing my foot again in the NBA (beginning of rookie season) and fracturing my index finger in my hand (early stages of year two).”
McCollum knew what to expect when rehabbing from his injuries. Care-for-your-body is especially important in the NBA, even beyond injuries, just from the grueling task of playing 82 regular season NBA games, and potentially postseason contests.
“I need to get ice baths, messages, foam roll, stretch,” said McCollum. “I started doing yoga later in my college career and have carried that over. Our strength coaches (in Portland) are very involved with us outside of basketball; they’re always interested in development off the court and figuring out different workouts that will challenge ourselves mentally and physically.”
Persistence Pays Off
Without persistence, McCollum would have reacted negatively to any one of his injuries, or he would have been discouraged by not playing as much as he would have liked at the beginning of his NBA career. Instead, he knew his time would come.
“What I like most about C.J.’s journey thus far is his resiliency, which is a characteristic I believe was enhanced in our program,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “He entered the NBA and was injured. Great disappointment, but he kept working to not only rehab, but to also improve his game. Then, he was with a veteran team and his opportunities were limited, but he continued to work on his game in order to improve and increase his role.”
McCollum saw an increased role on a young Trail Blazers’ team this past season and he took advantage, jumping from 6.8 points per game in 2014-15 to 20.8 in 2015-16 as one of the top 20 scorers in the entire NBA. He was recently rewarded with a contract extension through the 2020-21 season.
In many ways, the breakout shouldn’t have been a surprise. He ended the 2014-15 playoffs with a bang, averaging 17.0 points against Memphis including 33 points on 12-of-20 shooting and 7-of-11 from three-point range in Game 5.
What’s driven McCollum throughout his life is a confidence that’s needed to succeed.
“Because of C.J.’s confidence and his preparation, when it met the opportunity to play, he busted through the door and really commanded more minutes,” said Reed. “It wasn’t completely surprising that when given a primary role on the Blazers, he was able to take it and run.”
An even-keel approach helped McCollum persist through ups and downs.
“I always stood by my roots, understanding if I work hard, it would eventually pay off,” he said. “I might not see success right away, but success will come. I have ultimate confidence in myself and hold myself to a higher standard. For me, it was simple – work hard and understand that my opportunity will present itself.
“When it does, I’m not going to look back and that’s exactly what I did.”
Contagious Work Ethic
McCollum’s confidence is evident in all arrays of life. He gets the most out of everyone around him.
“C.J. set a model of work ethic [at Lehigh],” said Reed. “Despite playing the most minutes throughout the course of the season, he was always in getting extra shots after practice. Other players had a chance to see somebody being very good, but still continuing with a hunger to improve. He had an ability to be honest with his teammates as well, which developed with maturity and time.”
Reed saw McCollum’s grow through his four years as he played with a variety of types of teams at Lehigh.
“I specifically remember him saying that if you’re in the gym with me, I’ll trust you more,” said Reed. “I think his teammates took that to heart. Because of his demanding nature and the fact that he basically told his teammates if they want him to pass them the ball, then they better put in the work, raised a level of accountability for them to continue to improve.”
McCollum and his teammates certainly improved. The 2011-12 team that defeated Duke featured a group of players that bought in. Lehigh’s historic win in the 2012 NCAA Tournament was an entire team effort and in many ways, no fluke.
“C.J. and everyone on that team had such a great understanding of what it took, person by person, in order for us to win basketball games,” said McCollum’s former classmate Gabe Knutson. “Yes, that meant C.J. would have 25 points a game, and yes everyone else wanted to score that much. However, we established a culture of winning and a culture of trust, love and commitment that valued each player’s contribution. We all accepted our roles, but were not complacent within them.”
McCollum’s 30 points got the spotlight in the Duke victory, but the entire team needed to play well in order to win, and they did.
“Our roles became explicitly defined throughout that year, all of which culminated in the Duke victory,” said Knutson. “Not one person played outside of their role that game. There was no pressure to do more than expected on an individual or team level. We believed in each other and didn’t let individual fame supersede our team goals. We believed that if we did what we’d been doing all year and trusted that everyone else would do the same on the court, we would put ourselves in a position to win any game.
“On that day, it was enough for a victory.”
Internal Drive
Everything ties back to being hungry. McCollum has always been hungry in all areas of life, and he is still very hungry to do more.
“C.J. looked at every opportunity to compete and every opportunity to work on his skills as a chance to test himself and to make yesterday’s performance a benchmark for tomorrow’s growth,” said Reed.
That hunger is perhaps most evident in McCollum’s activities outside of basketball, especially as a journalist. Earning millions of dollars in the NBA, he could be happy where he is, knowing he’ll play basketball for a number of years and then retire.
But McCollum isn’t satisfied, and it ties back into his overall drive.
“Basketball is great. I love it. It’s been part of my life forever, but I realize it’s not going to last forever,” he said.
“We sat in my office and talked at one point that he could have a magnificent NBA career that lasted 15 years and make the Hall of Fame. When that’s all said and done, he’s not even going to be 40,” said Sterrett. “What are you going to do for the rest of your life?”
McCollum is already setting the foundation for his post-playing days. He is creating a strong footprint in the sports media community as someone who has worked with Sirius XM, covered the NBA Finals for the NBA’s Facebook page and was the social media correspondent for The Player’s Tribune at the 2016 ESPYS. McCollum signed a deal with iHeartRadio and is a DJ on Jam’n 107.5 where for two hours every Friday night, he hosts his show called “Playlist.” He also hosts a show on Rip City Radio 620 on Friday mornings during the season. That’s just scratching the surface.
“I have continued to build my resume, which goes back to college with my first nationally-published piece from the Sporting News, saying why I decided to go back to college for my senior year,” said McCollum. “It has taken off from there.”
McCollum has tied his journalistic passion into his passion to make a difference in the community. With ventures like “C.J.’s Press Pass,” a program where he mentors students, he is already beginning to create a legacy.
“I’m at the point where you think about how you can impact the lives of others, how you can create a platform that will be valuable to a younger generation,” said McCollum. “There are so many things I want to accomplish in my life. My main goal is to create a lasting legacy.”
“I’m pleased to see he’s continuing his community outreach, as he did here at Lehigh,” said Sterrett. “As a professional athlete, the impact is even more powerful. Instead of going in and talking about working on your basketball game, he’s talking about doing your homework, reading and learning skills that are important in college, and life after college, for the vast majority of young people who aren’t going to be professional athletes. I admire what C.J. is doing.”
A Positive Example
McCollum is a positive example for everyone associated with Lehigh Athletics – past, present and future.
“C.J.’s intangibles have put him in a position to maximize his platform,” said Reed. “For other players involved with our program, we expect the same thing. We want them to excel within their particular role and maximize their talent as a player, but that’s not enough. We also want them to grow and develop in all aspects of their lives, so that way, whatever platform they have, they can be well-prepared for their opportunities.”
For McCollum, his opportunities have been in the national limelight, but similarly strong improvement is happening with hundreds of student-athletes every day at Lehigh University. That improvement has come because of a common, innate desire to improve, along with resources around the student-athletes.
McCollum gives Lehigh his stamp of approval.
“So many people at Lehigh played important roles in my development, not only as a basketball player, but also as a person,” said McCollum.
The end goal within Lehigh Athletics is self-realization.
“Don’t compare yourself to others,” said McCollum. “Don’t be caught up in what everybody else is doing. Focus on how you can become the best version of yourself, no matter the area. Figure out your own internal niche.”
“You don’t have to be an NBA lottery pick to realize your best self,” said Sterrett. “The best athletic version of yourself may be a starter on a team. Our student-athletes can still be great friends, great students, great citizens and great leaders. They can have impacts that are very powerful.”
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