He’s done so by working as a studio analyst of New York Knicks games on MSG and he does college work for CBS Sports Network. “When you retire ends one chapter and that was a tough chapter for me to close.” “They say an athlete dies twice,” he said. He would be an NBA All-Star and score 9,195 points before his career ended in November 2009 with his third knee surgery.
#Wally szczerbiak pro#
Taken by Minnesota, he had a 10-year pro career with the Timberwolves, Boston, Charlotte, Seattle and Cleveland.
The RedHawks were derailed by Kentucky in the Sweet 16 and after that Wally was the No. “During that NCAA Tournament, he put Miami on the map.” “Wally took this whole area by storm,” said Steve Wolf, the former Xavier player, who broadcast Friday night’s Miami game with Dave Ryan and Wally, who is now retired as a player. Miami’s Wally Szczerbiak grabs a rebound vs. Guided by the beloved storyteller Charlie Coles, the RedHawks were everybody’s favorite Cinderella. After scoring 43 on Washington in the opener and 24 against Utah in the second round, he became the toast of the tournament. He would be named a first-team All-American, the Mid-American Conference player of the year and would lead the talent-laden RedHawks on a wondrous trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. Wally did get his diploma and he lived up to his big-time billing, too. “I’ll be glad to see him graduate,” said Vols coach Jerry Green. “Wally Szczerbiak is a legitimate big-time player.” When the Tennessee game ended, thousands of Miami students rushed the court and lifted Wally on their shoulders and carried him around the floor as he raised two clenched fists to the heavens.Ī half dozen pro scouts were there for the game, as was Wayne Embry, the Miami great of the late 1950s who was the general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers: And they’d do the same when Dayton came to Oxford three days later. The RedHawks toppled Tennessee, just as they had done to Notre Dame when they went to South Bend for the season opener. We were not losing on our home floor to anyone. “I remember that team was ranked pretty highly at the time,” he recalled Friday night. The favored Vols found themselves in a cauldron of noise and RedHawk heroics and now here came Wally, soaring for a dunk, the ball held over his head the way the Statue of Liberty lifts her torch.Īnd then “wham,” two more of what would be a 34-point night for him. It was the second game of the 1998-99 season - his senior year - and he was coming down the lane against a suddenly dazed Tennessee team. And then he was handed a commemorative basketball upon which were listed some of his great accomplishments as a RedHawks player from 1995-1999.Īs the crowd cheered, Wally palmed the ball like it was a cantaloupe and then held it over his head for all to see.Īnd right then I was reminded of another moment on this same court when he had gripped a basketball the same way and the crowd erupted. Renate Crawford and athletics director David Sayler, he was given the presidential medal for embodying the school’s “Love and Honor” motto.
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