UNC Basketball: Rashad McCants asks for forgiveness

Former UNC Basketball wing Rashad McCants talks in an exclusive interview with Quierra Luck and asks for forgiveness

Rashad McCants was a vital part of North Carolina’s success in that 2004-05 championship season.

But since then, he has turned into an enemy for fans of the University due to his allegations made against the school in 2014 about fake classes he allegedly took and tutors doing homework for student-athletes during his time with the Tar Heels. He also accused head coach Roy Williams of knowing it all along.

From there on, fans turned on McCants despite the University denying those allegations and not receiving a punishment.

Now, McCants is asking for forgiveness as he appeared on a podcast with Sports Illustrated’s UNC writer Quierra Luck. McCants discussed his new book Plantation Education: The Exploitation of the Modern-Day Athlete-Student as well as his time with UNC and a letter he wrote and dropped off to the University. During that interview, McCants asked for forgiveness about the whole situation:

Inside Carolina’s Ross Martin transcribed some of the interview and key points:

"“(I needed to) go down there and make it right…” McCants said. “When I got there, they had just left for the ACC Tournament. So I’m just like ‘I’m going to just leave a letter here.’ My whole point of being there and going there was to ask for forgiveness. … It was, ‘I forgive y’all for what y’all did and I want you to forgive me for what I did.’ …. I’m willing to erase all that, not even go down that road, and just say ‘I forgive y’all, I hope you forgive me,’ but I’m going to move forward, clear space in my heart and my head and I know I need this energy moving forward in my life…”"

"“I always have love, much much love, to the point where fans wouldn’t understand,” McCants said. “They put me on a pedestal for a long time. And even though I performed to the heights of that pedestal, these people really loved what I brought to the game and I can’t thank them enough or appreciate them enough. Because that’s what haunts me. That’s what made me ask for the forgiveness … I owe it to them to speak on the matter. I’m not going to apologize to the fans but I’m going to ask for their forgiveness."

You can listen and watch the full interview with Luck below:

There was a lot of good stuff in there by McCants and some interesting stories about the whole situation that took place. The feel of it was that McCants knows what he did wrong and wants to clear the air and make things right.

He did leave the letter to the program right before the ACC Tournament but since then, UNC has not addressed it. The feeling I get is that this didn’t clear up a whole lot but at least it was something and we got the chance to hear McCants’ side of it after a while.

For more on former UNC Basketball players, please check back with Keeping It Heel.