Syracuse Forward Rakeem Christmas Shows Why College Development Is Crucial

Trailing by one point with 13 seconds left in the game, Rakeem Christmas stepped up to the free-throw line. He hit the first, waited through a timeout, and then without hesitation, fluently drained the second foul shot. Syracuse would hang on to win the game (46-45) over Georgia Tech.

Although only another fragment of an already sensational season, the clutch performance by senior forward Rakeem Christmas serves as a valuable lesson. It is evidence of the transformation and growth a player can achieve if they complete four years of college basketball.

When Rakeem Christmas arrived on campus for his first season, like most other freshmen at top Division 1 basketball programs, he was touted to be the next best thing.

But just a mere season ago, in his junior campaign, Christmas, although a valuable asset to the team, only averaged 5.8 points per game and 5.1 rebounds.

After losing key players Tyler Ennis, C.J. Fair, Jerami Grant, and Baye Moussa Keita in the offseason, someone had to step up. Christmas rose to the occasion and has far exceeded expectations in the first half of the season. 

Through 15 games, he is averaging 17.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, making him one of the strongest all-around players in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Against the Yellow Jackets, the experience that Christmas built up over four years paid off.

In a less than ideal win, a game that Syracuse sportswriter Brent Axe called an “insult” to basketball, Christmas was one of the few bright lights for the Orange with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

Against the Norm

Seeing a guy like Rakeem Christmas is certainly not the norm in college basketball. Most really good players make the jump to the NBA after their freshman or sophomore season, looking to make a payday as soon as possible.

The problem with this strategy is that players join the “real world” before they are mature enough. At this point, they have not developed the resiliency, the intelligence or the leadership skills one needs when entering the NBA. 

When NBA scouts look at Rakeem Christmas for next year’s draft, they are going to see all of these things.

Christmas is a smart guy. He completed a B.S. in communications and rhetorical studies from SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts in just three years, which as coach Jim Boeheim said in an article by Syracuse.com writer Mike Waters, is, “about as rare as can be.”

In the same article, Christmas, who is now a graduate student in the school for instructional design, development and evaluation, reveals that he was not always the model student."My freshman year, I had to have people tell me to do it [homework]. But as you go along, you realize that you have to get it done.”

Even though they're unrelated to basketball, the skills Christmas gained by effectively balancing his life off the court will translate to his ability to handle pressure situations during games, like he did against Georgia Tech.

Furthermore, Christmas was never truly a leader up until this year, primarily because he never had the opportunity. In past years, although always an asset to the team and starting in almost all of the games, he always had people to fall back on.

Whether it was big men Fab Melo, Jerami Grant or Baye Moussa Keita, or scorers Tyler Ennis, C.J. Fair and Kris Joseph, Christmas has never played on a Syracuse team with less depth than this year. Three years of preparation has enabled Christmas to embrace the leadership role and have a breakout season. 

Unfortunately for players who turn pro early, because there is such talent in college basketball, leadership opportunities on a team usually will not arise until a player’s junior or senior year.

Breaking it Down

Even with Rakeem Christmas as an excellent example, many players will still shake their heads when it comes to completing college; they want to monetize their skills as fast as possible and avoid a career-ending injury at all costs.

But let's take a look at Fab Melo and Jerami Grant, two other Syracuse big men who played for the Orange at the same time as Christmas, and then turned pro early.

Melo, who is an entirely different person than Christmas, was considered a much better prospect when the two were on the team together. The Brazilian was 7’0” tall and 255 pounds.

After his sophomore season two years ago, where he averaged 7.8 points per game, 5.8 rebounds and claimed Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Melo turned pro and was drafted as the 22nd overall pick by the Boston Celtics.

Since then, the Celtics, who had to pay over $1.6 million just to get rid of him, released Melo. He then played for a little while under the Dallas Mavericks in the development league before signing with a team in Brazil in August, according to masslive.com.

According to Michael Jones of SBnation.com, only two other players have played in as few games as Melo after being selected in the first round.

At Syracuse, while going in an upward direction as a player, Melo never had the mental toughness he needed to get control of his life off the court, which culminated to him being ruled academically ineligible for the NCAA tournament in his last year at Syracuse.

This trend only seemed to continue in the pro-ranks in a slightly different, yet still problematic way. Melo had many foolish mishaps, most notably getting a concussion after walking into a door frame.

Transitioning over to Jerami Grant, a much more comparable person to Christmas, after a very strong season last year, Grant—who averaged 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game—made the decision to enter the draft, much to the displeasure of the Syracuse faithful.

Picked as the 39th player in the 2014 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, so far, in 19 games played, Grant is averaging 3.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. True, it is known that Grant will take some time to develop, and he is getting playing time, which is only a positive.

But, in a preview of the 2014 NBA Draft’s boom-or-bust prospects on Sports Illustrated’s Fansided blog, writer Maxwell Ogden says, “In the case of Jerami Grant, he has unreal upside and zero defined skills. Boom-or-bust epitomized.”

In other words, Grant is a huge gamble.

Now put yourself in the shoes of an NBA team. Even though it is hard to determine right now, would you rather have Jerami Grant or Rakeem Christmas on your team heading into next season?