Ten days ago, Jelan Kendrick was suspended from the Memphis basketball team for allegedly threatening a teammate. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time he had done so this year. Combine that with the issues he had as a high schooler in Atlanta, and many were predicting that Kendrick would, eventually, be leaving Memphis.
That won’t be happening, at least not yet.
On Thursday, Josh Pastner reinstated Kendrick after the former McDonald’s all-american missed the Tiger’s exhibition on Wednesday. He will be allowed to practice with the team, but Pastner has not yet made a decision on when Kendrick will be allowed to return to game action.
Word is that Kendrick responded well to the suspension and that he has taken the steps that Pastner was hoping to see him take.
“Sometimes for change to happen you might need to hit rock bottom, might need to get something you love taken away,” Pastner told Gary Parrish. “Sometimes it’s not until something that you love is taken away that you start to change.”
Maybe all the kid needed was a wake-up call.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.