‘This has changed my life.’ McLendon Initiative revives UK staffer’s athletic dreams.
He was an aspiring basketball player, and had reason to be.
As a sixth-grader, Ceasar Adim was one of only three players at the AAU nationals who could already dunk. Seventh Woods and future Kentucky player Bam Adebayo were the other two.
“So, I’ve known Bam since we were 12 years old,” he said this month.
As an eighth-grader, Adim made an impression on former UK player Wayne Turner. Both grew up in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury albeit two decades apart.
“Man, he was so dominant,” Turner recalled recently. “He was like the LeBron James of that era in Boston.”
Adim’s mother, who has a keen interest in history, named him after the Roman emperor in hopes of fostering a desire to make a difference. She named his brother Lincoln in honor of the former United States president.
Adim grew to be 6-foot-4. Four surgeries on his left knee ended his playing career. But his athletic aspirations live on.
Adim (pronounced A-deem) is working in the UK athletics department as one of five “ambassadors,” as staffers affiliated with the McLendon Minority Leadership Initiative are known. He works in the facilities and events operations department.
Adrien Harraway, vice president and director of the McLendon Foundation, keeps in regular contact with the 30 ambassadors working at 24 universities and for the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He said Adim has enjoyed the UK experience, which began last October and ends on Wednesday.
“Oh, he loves it,” Harraway said. “And his big thing now is to find his next opportunity. So, that’s what he and I have really been meeting about.”
Adim wants to be a basketball coach. As a player, he tried to think “two or three steps ahead,” he said. His high school coach also inspired him.
Plus, he cited one other reason.
“I felt the reason I wanted to get into coaching was just because I wanted to help other kids achieve the dreams I couldn’t achieve,” he said. “Not because I wasn’t good enough or tall enough or smart enough. Just because my body wouldn’t let me.”
Turner said Adim has the attributes to be a successful coach: “great smile . . . enthusiasm . . . very smart . . . he just has that ability to build relationships with different sorts of people.”
Adim has worked the youth basketball camps UK has staged on campus and in various locales in Kentucky this month. He spoke of the experience — which had included working alongside UK players at the camps — as inspiring.
“I live through them a little bit . . . ,” he said. “So, for me, helping kids achieve the dreams I couldn’t achieve myself I feel fulfills me as wanting to be a coach.”
Adim originally committed to UMass because he thought the school afforded him the best chance to play soccer (forward) as well as basketball (wing).
The second knee surgery and a coaching change at UMass led him to enroll at UK. Turner helped connect him with Tim Asher, who is the coaching video coordinator for UK basketball. Adim worked on the video staff.
Adim referred to the former UK point guard as “my Uncle Wayne Turner.” The two are not related, Turner said. It’s an honorary title for a mentor.
“You develop a certain bond,” Turner said. “It means more than big brother. He knows I have his back in all aspects of life.”
Adim went to UMass in 2018 and worked as a senior manager on the basketball team. Then came the coronavirus pandemic and a return to Kentucky.
That the McLendon Minority Leadership Initiative was launched during a pandemic is not lost on Harraway. Positions were posted beginning last July, “which is crazy,” he said.
UK Coach John Calipari has funded five positions at his school, plus one at North Carolina Central, where John McLendon began his Hall of Fame coaching career.
Louisville had two “ambassadors” in 2020-21. UK plans to have another five positions in the 2021-22 year, Harraway said.
Adim’s experience at UK led to a position in the 2021 NCAA Tournament “bubble.” He helped players and coaches navigate the COVID testing procedures, plus get from hotels to practices and games.
He recalled working with Villanova Coach Jay Wright, Michigan Coach Juwan Howard and Florida State Coach (and former UK assistant) Leonard Hamilton.
“A lot of these guys I got to know on a first-name basis,” Adim said.
In essence, these kinds of connections can translate into opportunity, which is the intent of the McLendon Minority Initiative.
“A lot of people like me don’t have that opportunity just because you don’t know the person in this kind of world,” Adim said. “It’s kind of hard. I think McLendon has changed my life just because it’s given me an opportunity to meet a lot of different people.
“For me personally, this is bigger than any championship just because this has changed my life.”
Kentucky-Kansas
It can be assumed that Kentucky-Kansas is the marquee matchup in next season’s SEC-Big 12 Challenge scheduled for Jan. 29. But an argument can be made for another game as the headliner: Defending national champion Baylor at defending SEC champion Alabama.
Yet, Kentucky-Kansas is, well, Kentucky-Kansas.
As Kansas pointed out in its news release, the game features the two winningest programs in college basketball history. Going into next season, Kentucky has the most all-time victories with 2,327. Kansas is second with 2,323 victories.
North Carolina is third at 2,294.
Kentucky is not trending well against Kansas and North Carolina. Kansas has won four of the last five meetings. In the last 15 games against North Carolina, Kentucky has a record of 6-9. And in case you’re wondering, UK has won only two of its last 10 games against Duke.
‘A marksman’
During an NBA Combine teleconference, former Iowa star Luka Garza fondly remembered CJ Fredrick. Of course, Fredrick transferred from Iowa to Kentucky this offseason.
“I’m a big fan of his, and I’m excited for him and what he’s doing,” Garza said. “And I’m going to be a fan going forward.”
Garza saluted Fredrick’s competitiveness and shooting ability.
“He’s really good at what he does,” Garza said. “He’s a marksman. Can move off (the ball). Can make some shot-fake-dribble-pull-ups (and) step-backs. Different things like that.
“He’s a terrific player, and I’m excited to see how he does at Kentucky.”
Juzang on UK
Former Kentucky player Johnny Juzang commanded the basketball world’s attention in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. In leading UCLA to the Final Four, he made 50.9 percent of his shots (54 of 106), 37.5 percent of his three-point shots (15 of 40) and averaged 22.8 points.
No doubt, this contributed to his decision to enter this year’s NBA Draft and participate in the NBA Combine.
But Juzang does not downplay how his UK season of 2019-20 contributed to his development.
“It was huge, man,” Juzang said during a Combine teleconference. “It’s a high-level program, great coaches, great environment, great players. So, I got extremely better. . . . It definitely matured me a lot coming into the next chapter of my life.”
Juzang did not rule out withdrawing from this year’s NBA Draft and playing for UCLA again next season.
“We’ll see how it plays out,” he said. “It was a joy (playing for UCLA). There’s no wrong decision, man.”
Expectations
During another NBA Combine teleconference, Brandon Boston was asked about his expectations for a first NBA season in 2021-22.
“My goal is just to be Rookie of the Year,” the former UK player said. “Just continue to develop into the person and player I know I can be.”
Looking ahead
That players see Kentucky (and other college programs) as a way to advance to the NBA rather than a basketball destination annoys some fans. But Larry Olmsted, the author of the book titled “Fans,” suggested that athletes are not unique in seeing college as a waystation.
“(An eye to the future) is also the reason the non-athletes are there, but in different ways,” Olmsted said recently. “They pick schools because they’re good at accounting, and they want to make money being an accountant. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for student-athletes to be looking out for their own big picture.”
Happy birthday
To Brandon Stockton. He turned 37 on Friday. . . . To former UK director of athletics Larry Ivy. He turned 78 on Saturday. . . . To Dominique Hawkins. He turns 27 on Sunday (today). . . . To former Auburn standout Chuck Person. He turns 57 on Sunday (today). . . . To former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley. He turns 50 on Monday. . . . To Davion Mintz. He turns 23 on Wednesday. . . . To former UK Coach Tubby Smith. He turns 70 on Wednesday.
