CJ McCollum is playing with confidence in Portland, which is getting the best out of his basketball ability. However, there was a time when the Blazers’ scoring guard wasn’t sure he could play.
“It’s crazy, I almost quit basketball when I was younger. Just all those things that I’ve gone through from a sports standpoint to having confidence – [my parents] had confidence in me, the faith in me before I really had it in myself. So, I’m forever grateful and thankful. And I always tell them, you know, ‘I’ll try to repay you the best I can, but you gave me the gift of life, so there’s nothing much I can do,” McCollum noted over a video chat with Brooke Olzendam, per NBC Sports.
Fortunately, McCollum’s mom got in the way and convinced the Blazers’ superstar to pursue his dream.
“I was young. This wasn’t going well for me. It was like a turning point in my life where I had to make a decision,” McCollum added. “You know, how much are you going to dedicate yourself to this? And if you’re not, plan B, like – I gotta get a 4.0 because [my parents] told me they weren’t paying for my school early on. So, I had to figure out a way to kind of delegate my time. I was working out and I wasn’t really performing the way I wanted to so I kind of had to figure out, okay, ‘what are you really going to do?’ And my mom was like, ‘you’re not a quitter, I didn’t raise no quitters.”
