When five-star basketball recruit Wendell Carter Jr. included Harvard among his list of four finalists, the college basketball world was shocked. But his official visit to Cambridge in September (and consideration of the Crimson) was far from the most noteworthy occurrence of his recruitment.
Carter, a 6-foot-10, 246-pound power forward from Pace Academy in Atlanta, is the No. 5 player in the 2017 class (Rivals) and carried offers from Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina. He didn't even take official visits to the latter two, instead opting for Georgia, Georgia Tech and Harvard.
“I’m a different person. I actually like going to school. I like doing my homework," Carter told Marc J. Spears in a terrific article for The Undefeated. "I saw [Harvard] as a situation where I could do something different, change the game […] It’s a great academic school. God forbid something happen to me physically."
With the help of his parents Kylia and Wendell Sr., who said they wanted him to attend a great school and graduate with a degree, Carter eventually picked Duke. But it wasn't exactly a smooth process. His parents said black coaches were rarely involved in his recruitment and some coaches were disrespectful, routinely ignoring Carter's father, Wendell Sr.
“There would be situations where we would be at the table talking and I would be overlooked, or there was no eye contact and everything was referred to my wife," Wendell Sr. said.
You can read the entire article on The Undefeated.
