The Walter McCarty Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, March 30th, 2012
You were born on February 1, 1974, in Evansville, Indiana. Take me back to your childhood hoops.
Evansville was a great place to grow up. I shot ball every now and then, but I didn't play on a team or in a league until I was in the fifth grade. I was always the tallest kid, but I didn’t know much about playing the game of basketball. Most of my friends and classmates did – they were either coached by their parents, or playing in some kind of league, whether it was at the YMCA or in a church league, but that wasn't me. I was just tall and out there in the neighborhood playing with the other kids, which was easy to do when you grow up in Indiana. It seems like every house has a basketball goal in the driveway. So after school that was always the thing to do. Always playing ball.
And when I did start playing ball in school, the biggest jump for me was from eight grade to my freshman year at Harrison High School. That's when I realized I could really become a good basketball player if I put in the work, and that motivated me to keep working and improving my game. Before you know it, I was headed to Kentucky.
Evansville sits across the river from the Kentucky border. You could have played with Calbert Cheaney at Indiana University. What happened?
The University of Evansville was the first school that started recruiting me hard, but really didn’t have any interest in going to Evansville. I pretty much knew I wanted to play for Kentucky, and there were a lot of reasons for that. Where my mom worked, she was always around UK fans, and living on the border meant we got to see as many UK games on television as IU games. IU recruited me, and I was friends with Calbert Cheaney even though he was three years older than myself, but I really had no interest in going to IU. It really boiled down to the style of ball they played, which was that classic Big 10 style with the big men confined to the post, which didn’t really match up well with the way I wanted to play. I was the kind of guy who was just as comfortable being out on the perimeter as I was being in the post.
Ironically, my second choice in schools was a Big 10 school – Purdue – but they had a couple of guys that played inside-out. But UK had Rick Pitino and I knew that his offense was perfectly suited to my skills; I felt that his up-tempo system really fit with the way that I like to play. And playing on those AAU teams, I got close with guys like Tony Delk and Jared Prickett, and that was a big factor in my decision.
What’s it like playing for the Kentucky Wildcats?
Kentucky fans are the greatest fans in the world. It’s a high-pressure situation – they want to win, but we also want to win, and we expect the best out of ourselves. Kentucky has a great tradition, and you want to live up to it. You don’t want to be on that team that doesn’t make the tournament or doesn’t advance in the tournament. So you always have that pressure of not just getting to the Final Four, but winning the Final Four.
It was a privilege to play there, and those were some of the best years of my life. The support there is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Other schools can say the same thing, but Kentucky fans are Kentucky fans, and they hate everybody else.
That ’96 team was loaded – it finished 34-2 and won the national championship. What was that like for you?
The journey to the championship was incredible. We knew we were talented and had the potential to be great, but what we had went much farther than just talent. We were such a close team. We really enjoyed each other's company and hanging out with each other away from the basketball court. We truly cared for each other, and those relationships stand to this day. And we worked hard – losing left a bad taste in our mouths, and we were determined to finish that season as the last team standing.
That championship season wasn’t always easy despite the record. How did you stay focused?
There’s always going to be bumps along the way, it doesn’t matter what team you play for, and it’s more about how you react to that adversity – how you handle it – that determines your outcome. It’s the same thing when I went to the Celtics. There were times when I played a lot of minutes, and times when I didn’t and someone else was out there on the court. For me it’s all about the challenge, and being enthusiastic in taking on that challenge. If I found myself not playing, I wanted to figure out what I needed to do to get those minutes back and to get back on the court. You just have to be excited about the opportunity to get back on your feet and make the most of every situation.
You were selected by the New York Knicks with the 19th pick in the '96 NBA Draft. Tell me about that.
It was the greatest feeling ever – to be able to do things for your family that you never thought you'd be able to do, that's just the greatest feeling in the world. I'd always dreamed of buying my parents a new house, and giving them a new car, but you don't think you'll ever be in that position. And then suddenly you're able to help them and take some of that pressure off of them.
And I never took it for granted. I knew that I had to prove myself, and that I had to go out there every day and show the coaches that I belonged in the NBA. I also knew that I had to earn my salary, and fortunately I had the work ethic to go out there and do the things to perform in this league. It was a challenge, no question about it, and in many ways it was about starting over again. I had to go out there and earn my minutes and earn my respect, just like when I was a freshman at Kentucky.