The Maloy question

Students Graham Younger and John Rogers in this week’s Davidsonian:

There is a scenario that everyone at Davidson College is thinking about, but no one wants to talk about. Stephen Curry is projected to be as high as a top-ten pick in the NBA Draft, and if he were to declare for the draft and forgo his senior season, the entire school would be devastated. But would anyone suggest that Curry does not deserve to have his number retired?

The late Mike Maloy’s statistics make it clear that he is one of Davidson’s all-time greats. He is still Davidson’s all-time leading rebounder and sixth all-time in scoring, and tallied three All-American selections, despite the fact that players were not allowed on the varsity until their sophomore seasons. He led Davidson within a game of the Final Four twice. As the first African-American student athlete to come to Davidson, his contributions extended into a political realm well beyond statistics. The story of how basketball superstar Charlie Scott choose UNC over Davidson after being denied service at a local restaurant is still known on campus. But if Maloy had not become the first African-American to play basketball at Davidson, that story could have had a much larger impact on both the basketball program and the town of Davidson.

And it seems as if anyone who came into contact with him will tell you exactly how warm and engaging he was. However, none of this matters, since Davidson College has a rule that refuses players who do not graduate the honor of entering the Hall of Fame or having their jersey retired. While the idea behind this rule (to show students the importance of finishing school) is a good one, Maloy’s situation clearly shows that it is better in theory than in practice.

Maloy left school shortly after his senior basketball season was over, after he was drafted by the Boston Celtics. It is hard to believe this sets some sort of poor example for other students. People can only play basketball for a living for so long before their bodies break down. The decision to leave school and begin working on a basketball career is a personal one, and after being such an excellent ambassador for Davidson throughout his time as a player, Maloy deserved the chance to make that decision. Not even the most impressionable people could see Maloy’s jersey in the rafters of Belk Arena and think that it somehow condoned dropping out of school. His situation was a unique predicament that, has not been a factor in the vast majority of Davidson basketball careers.

Davidson is an institution that should realize how many different ways there are to succeed in life, but cannot seem to accept that the decision not to graduate was Maloy’s to choose. Why can’t the powers that be in terms of choosing whose numbers are retired accept that students here can be prepared for their futures even if they do not graduate? Anyone who watches Coach McKillop mold basketball boys into men knows that being on the team at all surely prepared Maloy for later life, and gave him the skills he needed.

Almost every basketball fan in the state of North Carolina, if not the entire United States, can remember how Davidson’s run to the doorstep of the Final Four felt. If Stephen Curry decided to capitalize on his exceptional skill and enter the NBA draft, and we saw another player wearing his 30 during the next college basketball season, the public outcry could be heard from space. Mike Maloy gave Davidson fans that same elation of Elite Eight appearances twice, and his jersey should hang from the rafters. Unfortunately, he passed on without ever getting to see his number honored.