Mark Macon and some of his former Temple teammates had one last opportunity to say goodbye to John Chaney.
Chaney, who passed away at the age of 89 last Friday, hopped on a Zoom meeting with Macon and other players he coached a few days before he died.
Macon said the group reminisced about old times like the early morning practices, games, and other memories on Zoom.
“I’m not the person telling the stories. I’m just the one listening,” Macon said in a phone interview Monday. “Stories about practice, some of his sayings, guys just paying homage to him. All of these things are concurrent with us being raised from young men to men with him.”
Macon, now the assistant to the head coach on Aaron McKie’s coaching staff, was one of the best — if not arguably the best — players during Chaney’s time at Temple.
Macon finished his career with the Owls as the program’s all-time scoring leader with 2,609 points. Temple went a combined 94-35 during his four-years with the team, including a 32-2 record his freshman season in 1987-88 when the Owls earned an Elite 8 berth and were ranked No. 1 in the nation by the Associated Press.
Macon was selected eighth overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1991 NBA Draft. He played six seasons in the NBA, including time with the Detroit Pistons. The Saginaw, Michigan native also played overseas in Venezuela, Italy and China.
Prior to returning to Temple in 2019, Macon coached under Chaney on his staff from 2003-06. He also had stints as an assistant coach at Georgia State University (2006-07) and Binghamton University (2007-09) before he was the head coach of the Bearcats from 2009-12.
Here are some excerpts from OwlScoop.com’s exclusive interview with Macon.
Macon on some of his memories with Chaney:
“There are plenty. But my memories are not much different than others. I think the storytelling, the storytelling about life. Sitting around the gym after practice and him sharing the stories with us that pretty much related to a problem we might’ve had, or a life story of him growing up, having to get up very early in the morning to do his chores. One of the reasons we practiced early, people thought it was a whole lot of things. There were a whole lot of things behind it, but it was pretty much from his childhood. And you learned the lessons of — for me it was like — if you can do what you can do in the morning, you can do it all times of the day. It disciplined us to be able to be ready to go to bed early and wake up early.”
Macon on what comes to mind when he thinks of Chaney:
“It’s just passion and love. Passion and love for what he’s doing. Passion and love for people. Passion and love for the underdog, the less fortunate. He was very passionate about the less fortunate. He was very passionate about those who were less fortunate and all of the pitfalls and the hard times that we had based upon those who have privilege. Classism, if you want to say it in a manner of speaking in logical and educational terms… he was very keen to those who are less fortunate.”
Macon on Chaney’s legacy:
“All you have to do is look at his players. Look at all of the people he’s touched. That’s his legacy. His legacy is the soup that he made, very tasty, with all of us still carrying him on. He only passed in the physical, he transformed in the metaphysical.”
Macon on Chaney helping him transition from player to coach:
“It was always learning and being able to give what you learned back. He gave me the opportunity to give exactly what he taught me back to other guys and that’s what I did. Giving back is a service that each one must do, just like you’re doing right now. Your service is to tell the story, to give it to people the way it was given to you. It’s the same thing, to give it to players the way it was given to you."
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