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Rashad McCants implies that Kevin McHale has blackballed him from the NBA

By Collin Kottke

Nov 16, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale calls for a timeout agains the Boston Celtics in the second half at Toyota Center. Celtics won 111 to 95. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 16, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale calls for a timeout agains the Boston Celtics in the second half at Toyota Center. Celtics won 111 to 95. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /
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Former Minnesota Timberwolves first round pick Rashad McCants has accused Hall of Famer Kevin McHale of blackballing him from the league.

When you are best known for an academic fraud investigation that is probably a telling sign of how one’s basketball playing career has gone. Rashad McCants does not think that’s the case, according to our close personal friends at Sports Illustrated.

Before we get to McCants’ conversation with SI, we first need to look at what the former North Carolina Tar Heel said to the Charlotte Observer earlier this week.

"“I’ve been told, numerous conversations and numerous sources, that I’ve been blackballed. And it’s just the way the league is sometimes. When one person who is a higher-up, Hall of Famer, says don’t touch him, they won’t. And that’s just how it is.”"

Minnesota Timberwolves fans probably know who that is, but SI Now did push for a more clear answer from McCants.

"“If you look at the pieces, there’s only a couple of them. If you do your due diligence, one of them just happened to coach me. Wink, wink.”"

Kevin McHale was the only Hall of Famer that McCants ever played under. McHale was the Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations when the team drafted McCants. The Hibbing native then served as head coach of the team after Flip Saunders was fired in his first stint with the franchise.

McCants told SI Now that he thinks it’s “fishy” he didn’t have a long NBA career with stats like his.

"“When you average 15 points a game in your third year, 10 points a game for your career, and you can’t get a job—and you’ve never been in trouble, never gotten in any fights—there’s something fishy there.”"

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McCants only lasted in the NBA for four seasons. He was with the Wolves for 3.5 seasons and with the Sacramento Kings for the last half season of his career. McCants is fairly accurate in his reporting of his own career stats with a 14.9 points per game average in his third NBA season which did help him average exactly 10.0 points per game in his career. The other points per games for McCants’ career were only 7.9, 5.0 and 9.6 proving his mentioned third year was the outlier.

McCants didn’t fill up the box score with many other stats either. In his career McCants averaged 1.3 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 0.7 steals per game in 225 games played.

The good news for McCants’ fans is that he will be back on TV soon. McCants was recently the first overall pick in the Allen Iverson led three-on-three league called the BIG3. McCants was drafted by the Trilogy a team that is coached by Rick Mahorn. Bleacher Report also says that Kenyon Martin (captain), Al Harrington (co-captain), James White and Dion Glover are on the Vision squad.

Next: The Wolves need to stay away from Derrick Rose

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