The MVP

Hey, did TigerBlog mention that last week was the 25th anniversary of the men's basketball team's 1996 postseason run?

He did, right? 

Just kidding. He knows. 

He has very much enjoyed the journey back 25 years. Maybe the best part was hearing from so many different people with their memories of those days, even with little things that TB had forgotten and which still made him laugh when reminded of them.

Everyone he spoke with had a different story to tell, a different anecdote, a different small detail that still resonated. 

TB ran through a few of the top events in Princeton Athletics history yesterday. Where that week in 1996 falls on that list notwithstanding, he can say that in his entire time here, he's never had a week quite like that one. 

Also, when TB was interviewed by Cody Chrusciel for his video series, TB mentioned that Pete Carril's sheer happiness after the playoff win over Penn was only rivaled one time that TB has seen here, and that was in 2001, when Bill Tierney collapsed in joy to the Rutgers Stadium grass after winning an NCAA title (his sixth at Princeton before the one he's won at Denver) with his sons Trevor and Brendan on the team. 

Anyway, that's enough of that.  

And so today, he leaves 1996 behind and ventures back to the present. Or at least to last week.

As he does so, he'll stay with men's basketball for another day.

Specifically, there was the performance last week of Devin Cannady, who was named the MVP of the G-League finals as his Lakeland Magic team won the championship. Cannady became the first undrafted player ever to win the award.

The entire G-League season was played in the Orlando bubble where the NBA played in its resumption last summer. The championship game saw Lakeland beat the Delaware Blue Coats 97-78. Cannady finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-for-17 shooting from the field and 4-for-9 shooting from three along with six rebounds and four assists.

It was a great moment for Cannady, who spent the preseason with the Orlando Magic and who now has had back-to-back strong seasons in the G-League.

Does Cannady have an NBA future?

TigerBlog would like to think so. In the world of today's NBA, Cannady can do the single most important thing that is needed - he can shoot the three (from well beyond the line, by the way). 

Cannady's long-range shooting ability is coupled with a tirelessness that gets him out in transition and makes him a perfect part of a modern-day NBA fast break. He is also very good at chasing down long rebounds and starting the other way. He's also one of the best free throw shooters in any league anywhere, which means that you love having the ball in his hands at the end of a close game in which your team is ahead.

Will he get a chance? TB hopes so.

Regardless, Cannady has done so much to turn the negative of his well-known incident during his senior season at Princeton in 2019 into the positives that have followed. He has been open about the issues that he faced, directly addressed those issues, came back to graduate from Princeton and now stands as close as he's ever been to reaching the top of his sport.

Even without the end of his senior year, Cannady still ranks fifth in Princeton history with 1,515 career points, and his 268 career three-pointers are third at Princeton.

He was a Jadwin Gym favorite because of his skill and his persona, which resonated joy at all times.

It made Princeton fans happy to see how he's turned his life around and how well he's doing now. He certainly looked the part of an NBA player in the game last week. 

And he did so with that same obvious joy that was so much a part of his game at Princeton.

The most recent Princeton player to play in the NBA was Steve Goodrich, a member of the great Class of 1998 that included current head coach Mitch Henderson.

TB is hoping Cannady is the next. It would be a great ending to his story. 

For now he has the G-League finals MVP and championship trophies. It wasn't a bad week at all.