Kelly McCarty was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame. He definitely earned his spot in the Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame with an outstanding basketball career that really started once he graduated high school and began attending college.
“I graduated from Quitman in ’94. I played in high school with Antonio McDyess,” stated Kelly. “After graduation, I went on to sign a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Southern Mississippi. I think that was the best thing for me and my family because we were a close family. Coach MK Turk and Ralph Moore were there at the time, and they really made me feel good about choosing Southern Mississippi to further my basketball and education.”
During his freshman year, he was able to experience and accomplish things that not many freshmen are privileged to do.
“My freshman year, I was coming out of high school 6’7” as shooting guard and small forward, and I definitely had to get stronger. I was just physically weak. The coaches helped me get in the weight room immediately when I got there,” explained Kelly. “We had some really big expectations because there were a lot of good freshmen coming in, and I was fortunate enough to work my way into the starting lineup as a freshman. I never asked for handouts or anything; nobody gave me anything. I had to work my way into their starting lineup. I just appreciated the game of basketball because it had done so much for me and my family. My freshman year we played Louisville in Louisville at Freedom Hall, and I think it was one of the nation’s best atmospheres to play in at the time. I hit my career high as a freshman in my experience at Freedom Hall. I had like six threes or something like that, and we won the game. That was a huge accomplishment for Southern Miss as a school and for a freshman scoring a career high at Freedom Hall was big.”
His sophomore year in college brought about a whole new perspective for him.
“Antonio got drafted after his second year and went into the NBA. He and I stayed in contact, and just from conversations with him and others around him, I had heard rumors that possibly I could have gotten drafted after my freshman year,” declared Kelly. “I didn’t draft, but it changed my approach to the game of basketball. It changed the way I thought about the game. It changed the way I thought about myself, and it changed my approach. I’d say after my sophomore year, I really tried to hone in on being the best that I could. I met my now wife, Felicia McCarty, my sophomore year in college. We were dating, and things were a little more stable for me. Coach Boone used to call me at random and would always have some encouraging word for me. My sophomore year we had a coaching change. Coach Green came in and changed the atmosphere and changed everything at Southern Miss. I didn’t know if it was for me and debated what other options I had. Coach Green challenged me. If you were able to stand up and earn his respect, then you got to play and had your place, but once you understood his style and the plan behind the madness it was pretty cool. I felt like nobody was in better shape than our team because of the mental and physical condition we were in. I felt like we had an edge all the time.”
By the time he was finishing his college career in basketball, Kelly was already looking towards his future career and what he should do.
“Nobody wants that last game to happen, but inevitably it was going to come, and I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I really didn’t know where I was going or what that looked like, so for me it was to just finish off the best I could and see what’s next,” recalled Kelly. “Antonio McDyess was always there to talk to me and help me understand the professional scene and how that works. He helped me after my last year at Southern Miss when I finished up. At the time, he was living in Houston and told me to come out there. He told me I could come out and practice with all the pros and get acclimated to the professional game, so that was my next step. I was a rookie out of college and didn’t get drafted, so I had to go in as a free agent. I had to go in and make a team.”
He didn’t waste any time, and he started training his hardest to make his professional dreams come true.
“Coach John Lucas was so influential in my time in Houston. He and I would have lots of conversations, and the workouts were grueling, but it was fun. He would tell me that if I wanted to be an NBA pro, then that was how I had to do things,” Kelly reminisced. “The moment I was just in awe was when I came to the gym one morning and getting ready for our workout, and I looked up in the bleachers and saw Moses Malone there. I was going to have a chance to play pickup with Moses Malone, and that was pretty cool. That was my time in Houston. Training camp started in November, and I went to Denver. On the last day of training camp, I was called out on the court and was let know that I made the team for the 98-99 season and was welcomed to the NBA. That was the beginning of my pro career.”
While he had finally achieved his dream, there were still changes to come in his career.
“We had a great team and a good season. I didn’t play that much since I was a rookie and undrafted. It was okay because I was enjoying my time as an NBA pro. I think I played a total of two or three games. That summer came and I was back in Mississippi. I saw in the newspaper that the Denver Nuggets had waived the rights to Kelly McCarty for the following season,” informed Kelly. “At that moment, my agent was talking to me about if I wanted to go overseas or try to make a team in the NBA. I told him I’d love to be in the NBA, but I’d rather go where I can play. We came to the conclusion that I could go overseas and play. I was approached with an opportunity to go to Israel, and the name of the team was Maccabi Ra’anana. It was a good team and nice place in a suburb of Tel Aviv. My wife got the chance to come over and visit and see the European side of life.”
While in Israel, he had even further changes take place in his life.
“I was there for two years, and my second year, I got cut. To this day, I don’t understand it, but it was just what God had for me. In the midst of my first and second summer in Israel, I came home and got married, and I gave my life to Christ. My life went from pre-Christ to now I had a reason for going and doing what I do on a daily basis trying to please God and serve God on the court with everything I do. It was contrary to the way I approached the game before because I was aggressive and used foul language,” expressed Kelly. “It was an adjustment learning how to present Christ on the basketball court and allow Him to use me on the basketball court. It took me a year or so to figure out what that looked like, and in the midst of that year is when I got cut.”
He didn’t give up and was able to move to another team.
“My third year, I was at home between jobs and trying to get as much rest as I could, but I still believed I was a pro basketball player. I was working out and finding any gym I could on my lunch break to give me a little workout as hard as I could before going back to work. I did that from about March to September,” remembered Kelly. “My agent called me and said that it may not be the money I want, and before he could finish I told him I would take it. I just wanted to play basketball and was excited about the opportunity and grateful for anybody that would allow me to play, so I went back to Israel. The name of the team I went back to was Givat Shmuel. Again, it was a suburb of Tel Aviv. We had some really good games. We beat Maccabi Tel Aviv, who was the number one team there. We had a lot of unexpected wins, and I resigned to go back to that team for the next year.”
After he completed his fourth year in Israel, he decided it was time for another change. However, something unexpected happened to him in the middle of his fifth year.
“My fifth year there, I signed with a team called Rishon Lizhon. It was a smaller team and paid me a little more, and I was having a great season,” said Kelly. “We get to the point in the season where it’s like the midway point, and I go to practice one day to find that there was a lot of confusion in practice, and it was all surrounding me. I was asking what did I do or not do, and the head coach opened up a newspaper, and they had my face on the front of the newspaper. They had an article about me saying that I wanted to leave the team, I wasn’t happy, and I wasn’t getting paid, and that I didn’t like my coach and my teammates. Anybody that knows me knew that was a lie, but it was on the front page of the paper so there were a lot of people who believed it. I talked to the coach and told him those things weren’t true. I called the newspaper and asked why they said those things about me when they never even talked to me, and they said they would make it right in the next issue. I called my wife because she was still in the states, and I was in tears asking her what I should do. She told me to just sit back and let God do what He’s going to do.”
Kelly followed her advice and endured the nerve-wracking situation to discover that God had bigger plans for him than he imagined.
“I went home and sat in my apartment for the next two days because they told me not to come to practice. That third day, I got a call from the general manager of the team I was playing for saying he needed to meet me at the team office,” explained Kelly. “I walked into the team office and saw my president and general manager and then the president and general manager of Hapoel Jerusalem, which was the second team in Israel. I didn’t know but found out later that the only way a player from the United States could move from one team to another team in the same country was if the player requested to be traded or if the player requested to leave the team. The whole write-up was drummed up by the management, and it was the team Jerusalem. They gave money to Rishon in return for my services as a basketball player. I left a middle to bottom level team to go to the second best team in all of Israel and a top team in Europe. I moved to Jerusalem in the middle of the season, and for me I got to go to a better team in a city where my savior actually walked on a daily basis. It was like a vacation for me every time I would wake up to go to practice, and it was amazing.”
While playing for Jerusalem, he was very successful.
“They participate in the Eula Cup, and when we get there everyone is excited,” stated Kelly. “The head coach is the coach I was cut from the second year I was there. He brought me back and apologized for cutting me that second year, so we made that right. We went on to play in the Eula Cup Championship against Real Madrid. It was my first European Championship to play in. We came out and I was nervous. I had two points at halftime and came into the locker room to my teammates telling me to settle down and that I belong there. We came out to the second half and finished with26. We won the Eula Cup and beat Real Madrid. I was nominated as the Eula Cup MVP and won my first European Championship. We had an awesome season, and I told them I would love to return if we could work out a contract with the right money and all, but that didn’t work out.”
His career didn’t end there, though. Instead, it took a different direction.
“I got a call that summer from David Blatt saying that there was an owner in Russia who wanted to start his own team and that he was supposed to be head coach. He wanted me to be the first foreigner that he signed,” proclaimed Kelly. “I got the chance to name my price and went to Russia with my family. We went there, and I won my second European Championship and was nominated for MVP again. We had a great season inside of the Russian League. I resigned with that same team for two more years. That team folded the next year and I ended up signing with a team called BC Khimki who was the second best team in Russia and a top team in Europe as well. I played in Russia for a total of nine years. I was dealing with a knee injury and just never got back where I wanted to be, so I wound up retiring.”
Although he wasn’t playing professionally anymore, Kelly decided to help others reach their goals once he returned to the States.
“I purchased a gym in Huntsville and started what’s called You Win Training Facility, which is what I do now every day,” declared Kelly. “I turned it into a training facility where we train kids from every age, including collegiate and pro athletes. We train them on a daily basis. I’ve been doing that since 2014. We’ve had a big part to do with quite a few kids getting to their college. In the midst of the training facility on the court, we have on the edge Romans 1:16. For me, it’s always about helping kids understand who they are in Christ. I try to help kids understand that their identity should be wrapped around Christ, and that once they understand that then they can go and be what they’re supposed to be.”
Around four months ago, a former coach from USM reached out to Kelly and suggested that he apply for the Hall of Fame by submitting his name and accomplishments. Kelly decided to send in all the information that was needed and was selected amongst a few others.
“I am honored and humbled to be mentioned among the six other people and among the people who have already been placed into the Hall of Fame,” proclaimed Kelly.
Congratulations on being inducted into the Hall of Fame!
