Holdahl: Blazers Rookie G C.J. McCollum Interviewed On Jim Rome Show

Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com has a full transcript of Portland Trail Blazers rookie guard C.J. McCollum's interview on the Jim Rome Show, which aired Tuesday.

The audio is here. Here are a few snippets.

Before we talk about the NBA and where you are, take me back to your freshman year in Canton, Ohio. At that point you were 5-2, 108 pounds. At that time, was the dream of making the NBA realistic?

"It was defiantly realistic. I knew at some point I would hit a growth spurt, I just didn't know when it would come. My father graduated high school at 5-7 and he's 6-3 now so I was just praying it would come before my senior year.

"But I wasn't really worried about my height because I was young for my age -- I think I graduated high school at 17 years old -- so I knew it was going to come eventually."

...

You could have come out after the game against Duke your junior season but you decided to return to Lehigh. How come?

"I had a lot of reasons. First and foremost, I promised my mother I would get my degree in four years. And I felt like I had a lot to kind of work on and improve. I wasn't happy with the loss we had to Xavier in the next round. I ended up shooting 4-for-20 and that kind of stuck with me. That was in the back of my mind, I wanted to get to the tournament and kind of revamp my image, show people that I wasn't a one-hit wonder, that my shot is better, my game is better, I can get stronger.

"But at the same time I felt like I needed to kind of mature physically. I was strong, but I wanted to get stronger, kind of build my body. The NBA is a different type of game. You're playing against grown men who want to feed their families at night so I wanted to make sure I was as ready as possible. But at the same time, another year with no responsibilities, just working out, going to class, was great. Now I'm ready for the real world and I look forward to it."

Read the whole interview here.

PS Thanks to Roy Wonder in the FanShots.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter