He might be Texas Tech’s best player ever. Now he’s thriving in Ice Cube’s Big3.
Mac Engel
August 16, 2018 10:18 AM
Ice Cube is a basketball junkie and a co-founder of the Big 3 basketball league, and he still had no idea who one of the best players in his league was before this year.
Around Lubbock, no one forgets Andre Emmett. The same can be said for some parts of China, in South America, a town in Belgium and a handful of other spots not exactly known for basketball.
Emmett never stuck in the NBA, but he has stuck with basketball and it’s given him an entire career, and a wealth of life experiences, most people will never have.
Arguably the best basketball player in Texas Tech’s history, the former Red Raider is now having success on a professional basketball court in the U.S.
Emmett is one of the best players in thesecond-year Big 3 league, which will have its playoffs on Friday night at the American Airlines Center. He’s actually a candidate to be the league’s MVP.
It’s not the NBA, but it’s home where he can play in front of his family and friends.
He’s 35, has two baby daughters, and the man can still play.
Former Texas Tech great Andre Emmett
Courtesy of Texas Tech athletics
“I’ve been all over Europe. Played in South America. Puerto Rico. Had a playoff run in Mexico,” he said this week in a phone interview. “And Lebanon. China. Korea. The D-League. Call up to the NBA. Back overseas.”
A lot of good college players get the chance to play ball overseas, but not all of them are cut out to live in another country. A lot of them can’t even make it on the floor, and the culture shock sends a lot of guys back home.
“Everywhere I have been they have embraced me and I’ve embraced them,” he said. “The only horror story I have is really from Lebanon. We were in the Finals, and at the time there was this big religious war going on between the Christians and the Muslims. We get to Game 3, and all hell breaks loose. Fans are running on the floor, and the league cuts it all off. It was all over. We didn’t get paid for our championship run, and I was on the next plane out. That was my last time in Lebanon.”
Emmett is your classic “tweener:” the great college player who never found the right slot in the NBA. He is a perfect size for 3-on-3, half court basketball.
Emmett will be forever the most successful product of the Bob Knight regime at Texas Tech. And like so many of the players who played for Knight, Emmett has “Knightmare” stories. He also credits him for the roots of his success.
“He taught me the game and how to prepare and it stuck with me my whole career,” said Emmett, who was at Tech from 2001 to ‘04. “He absolutely knew what he was talking about. His delivery is what you would have preferred. The message means well, the delivery was the tough part.”
Emmett stuck it out with Knight. He has stuck it out with basketball.
Now he’s back home playing in front of his family and friends.
And Ice Cube knows who he is, too.
