Kemba Walker Recently Read His First Book

Connecticut star guard Kemba Walker announced today he would forgo his senior season and enter the NBA draft. It was an expected move not only because he led the Huskies to a national championship, but also because he had participated in Senior Day festivities and is set to graduate from school in three years.

According to Sports Illustrated, Walker appears to have gone through college having only recently completed reading an entire book for the first time.

And in his travel pack is a copy of New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden’s Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete, a book that Crump encouraged Walker to read as part of an independent study class on racism in sports. Before the Final Four, [academic counselor Felicia] Crump suggested that Rhoden’s book would be the first that Walker had ever made it through cover-to-cover. After the win over Kentucky, Walker confirmed this. “That’s true,” he said. “You can write that. It is the first book I’ve ever read.”

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“I just need to finish up strong,” Walker told reporters. “It won’t be hard. I’m gonna take all the time I need to graduate and most likely I will.”

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