"IT WAS 8 TO 1 CHICKS" - ANTHONY MASON CHOSE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY BECAUSE OF THE GIRLS-TO-GUYS RATIO
Most high school basketball phenoms spend weeks or even months thinking about which university or college they should commit to as each school has its unique program. However, that wasn't the case with the late All-Star power forward Anthony Mason.
For Mase, picking Tennessee State University (TSU) was a no-brainer as he noticed the ratio of girls to guys was 8:1. Little did he know, being polite was just a culture of the south, and most of those girls weren't really into him.
"Honest reason? It was 8 to 1 chicks [laughs]," Mason told Where Are They Now In Sports. "Then you had Fisk University up the block, there was about 13 and 1 [chicks] so I went down there and you don't know about the south so everybody speaking to you and say, 'Hey, how you doing?' I'm like, 'Oh, she like me.' They ain't like me. I didn't know that the south was just being polite."
A beast at TSU
Nevertheless, Mason dominated for TSU. Pretty girls may have distracted him, but never on the court. For four years, he played his heart out for the Tigers and became the school's first All-Ohio Valley Conference player.
By his senior year, Mase was a full-blown beast, wreaking havoc on both ends of the floor. He finished his final season at TSU with a whopping average of 28 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 2 steals per game.
In 1988, Mason was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers as a third-rounder. He didn't strike the team as a future basketball star and was eventually cut before he even made his NBA debut. After playing one year of pro basketball in Turkey, Mason was finally signed by the New Jersey Nets, but he only played 21 games for the team. The following season, the Denver Nuggets tried to see if Mason could be a good fit, but he was eventually released after three games.
In 1991, New York Knicks head coach Pat Riley finally gave Mason a break he was waiting on his whole life. Under Riley's tutelage, Mase took off and became one of the most notable bruisers in the NBA. He carried the same playing style in Charlotte, but it was with the Miami Heat where he finally became an All-Star player.
Mase was a party animal
Another thing that Mason was known for in the NBA, aside from being a hard worker inside the paint, was his hard partying. According to his former teammate Ricky Davis, Mase was a party animal.
"Anthony Mason coming in with 50 shots of tequila. This was before they brought the bottles. The waitress coming out with 50 shots and I'm 17, 18 years old," Davis once recalled.
Over time, Mason's unconventional lifestyle took a toll on him. In February of 2015, he passed away due to congestive heart failure at age 48.