It’s hard for Aaron McKie to muster up his earliest memory of his former coach and mentor, John Chaney.
The current Temple men’s basketball head coach told reporters Saturday afternoon, following Chaney’s passing, that he remembers going to Big 5 games growing up and enjoying watching him coach and watching his teams play. He said he just remembers thinking, “that’s a tough guy right there.”
McKie said that was always something he wanted to be a part of.
Following an incredibly successful three-year Temple career highlighted by three NCAA Tournament berths and one Elite Eight appearance in 1993 and a 13-year NBA career that most prominently included a trip to the 2001 NBA Finals, McKie found himself right back in the chair his mentor once sat in.
Chaney’s parting advice, according to McKie, was to continue to take care of his players and to just help people.
Here are some excerpts from McKie's session with reporters Saturday afternoon:
McKie, remembering John Chaney:
“In just talking to him over the past year, he was at peace with everything. … I have a heavy heart now, selfishly, because he’s one of those guys who’s supposed to be here forever. But I’m at peace. And I’m the fruit. He planted the seeds for not just myself, but for a lot of guys, for a lot of young men, and gave me an incredible opportunity. I’m here now because of him, because of how he fought for so many inner-city kids. I’m here because of him. I have a heavy heart now, but I can smile because he’s in a better place now.”
McKie on Chaney’s influence:
“He inspired me since I was a little kid. He was one of few Black men that I could look at in our society and say, ‘I want to be just like him.’ I had no intentions of being a coach. As I got closer to the end of my playing days, I thought about what’s next for me. I thought about the impact that he had on me as a coach and as a person. I thought about the impact that he had on this community and this university and I said that’s the natural next step for me. I wanted to move into coaching to emulate what he’s done for so many in their lives and hopefully I can get close to that.”
McKie on how Chaney will be remembered:
“I think people who really didn’t have an opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with him or a conversation with him or break bread with him, he’s misunderstood in some ways. They would look at his antics on television, pulling the tie off or getting into an argument with a referee or a coach and they’ll look at that as being something different. But he was a gentleman. He was a character, an avid lover of food and would sit and talk with anybody about basketball. He was human. He was just like a lot of people. Where society saw him as a Hall of Fame coach, he was just like everybody else. I think that’s what a lot of individuals respected about him. The biggest thing about him is, he’s a Hall of Fame coach and he cemented his legacy in the game of basketball, but he just cared. He cared about people.”
Front page photo: Associated Press
