Hey guys, I finally was able to transcribe the entire interview Shareef Abdur-Rahim had with us. Below are key quotes. The rest will be saved for the article. I'm still trying to figure out what direction I'll take this story. Shareef gave us a lot of good stuff.
Q: Shareef, can you just talk about being back here on campus and what this means to you?
A: “Well, I’ve tried over the years to get back at least once or twice a year. My family and I, we moved to the East Coast. Over the last couple years, it’s been harder, but it’s always just great memories and exciting to be back on campus. When I come into campus, I usually have to come past Clark Kerr, where when I was here we lived. So, that’s just fun. Brings back a lot of memories and then the honor of being recognized with the Pete Newell Award, knowing what Coach Newell means to the university and to basketball in general is an honor. So, just excited, honored, and humbled.”
Q: How did Cal get on your radar and who else were your main choices?
A: “I was like an SEC, ACC kid. You know? So, I grew up going to all the Georgia Tech games and Dukes and North Carolinas and Kentucky. Those were the schools. Those were the schools. I honestly didn’t know Cal until Jason [Kidd] committed here. And I was like, I didn’t know it was a school. Coach Bozeman just did a wonderful job of painting a picture of the school for me and what he probably did better than anybody else was he recruited my mother. So he got my mother to like Cal and to like him and she made me pay attention like hey, you should listen to this guy, I like him. And when she told me that I was like alright. So once I did that, he did a really good job of selling the school.
"Different from other folks, he didn’t really, we didn’t have a huge basketball program at the time, he sold the university. He explained everything about the university. He literally was like this is before power points, he came in with like a huge board that he carried into my living room and all the different flyers from around the school and different student body programs and all the activities and talked about Harry Edwards and Professor Algar and all the famous professors from African-American Studies, Islamic Studies, and different topics and everything that was going on with campus and it appealed to me. And we’re going to be a good basketball team, too.”
Q: If you were a Cal coach recruiting a kid like you, what would you do? What would you say?
A: “I mean, I think it’s what the university has to offer. If you are interested in coming to school and being a student and being connected to an unbelievable community and having being challenged to learn about different people and different things. You want to play high level basketball in the Pac-12. You want to play in front of some of the most spirited fans and community and supporters, then Cal is a place you should come. I remember when we were here, like Harmon was much smaller than Haas, but we beat Stanford here at Cal my year and all the students just being able to just attack the court. And that spirit and that connection, you don’t see a lot of places.”
Q: Now that you’ve graduated, what has it been like interacting with alumni and that community you’ve been talking about?
A: “It’s great. I see folks everywhere that were here. It’s like I have two experiences. I have the experience when I played here and I was a student. And so the community of folks that I was connected to then and then I have the connection of like coming back and connecting with like a whole group of folks that had nothing to do with athletics. I learned a ton in both experiences. I’m just thankful to have the relationship and connection to the university.”
Q: Shareef, can you just talk about being back here on campus and what this means to you?
A: “Well, I’ve tried over the years to get back at least once or twice a year. My family and I, we moved to the East Coast. Over the last couple years, it’s been harder, but it’s always just great memories and exciting to be back on campus. When I come into campus, I usually have to come past Clark Kerr, where when I was here we lived. So, that’s just fun. Brings back a lot of memories and then the honor of being recognized with the Pete Newell Award, knowing what Coach Newell means to the university and to basketball in general is an honor. So, just excited, honored, and humbled.”
Q: How did Cal get on your radar and who else were your main choices?
A: “I was like an SEC, ACC kid. You know? So, I grew up going to all the Georgia Tech games and Dukes and North Carolinas and Kentucky. Those were the schools. Those were the schools. I honestly didn’t know Cal until Jason [Kidd] committed here. And I was like, I didn’t know it was a school. Coach Bozeman just did a wonderful job of painting a picture of the school for me and what he probably did better than anybody else was he recruited my mother. So he got my mother to like Cal and to like him and she made me pay attention like hey, you should listen to this guy, I like him. And when she told me that I was like alright. So once I did that, he did a really good job of selling the school.
"Different from other folks, he didn’t really, we didn’t have a huge basketball program at the time, he sold the university. He explained everything about the university. He literally was like this is before power points, he came in with like a huge board that he carried into my living room and all the different flyers from around the school and different student body programs and all the activities and talked about Harry Edwards and Professor Algar and all the famous professors from African-American Studies, Islamic Studies, and different topics and everything that was going on with campus and it appealed to me. And we’re going to be a good basketball team, too.”
Q: If you were a Cal coach recruiting a kid like you, what would you do? What would you say?
A: “I mean, I think it’s what the university has to offer. If you are interested in coming to school and being a student and being connected to an unbelievable community and having being challenged to learn about different people and different things. You want to play high level basketball in the Pac-12. You want to play in front of some of the most spirited fans and community and supporters, then Cal is a place you should come. I remember when we were here, like Harmon was much smaller than Haas, but we beat Stanford here at Cal my year and all the students just being able to just attack the court. And that spirit and that connection, you don’t see a lot of places.”
Q: Now that you’ve graduated, what has it been like interacting with alumni and that community you’ve been talking about?
A: “It’s great. I see folks everywhere that were here. It’s like I have two experiences. I have the experience when I played here and I was a student. And so the community of folks that I was connected to then and then I have the connection of like coming back and connecting with like a whole group of folks that had nothing to do with athletics. I learned a ton in both experiences. I’m just thankful to have the relationship and connection to the university.”
