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I tried really hard to think of a good Christmas pun to work into this story but I just couldn't figure one out. I suppose we're all the better for it.
Syracuse Orange big man Rakeem Christmas still has another season to hone his skills on the basketball court and he'll be doing it while balancing the life of a graduate student. The junior will fulfill his academic requirements over the summer and has accomplished enough to walk in this weekend's graduation ceremony.
Christmas, a junior center on the Syracuse basketball team, will walk through graduation ceremonies this weekend as he receives a B.S. in communications and rhetorical studies from SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim believes Christmas is the first SU basketball player to earn a degree in just three years.
"It's got to be about as rare as can be,'' Boeheim said. "It's an unbelievable accomplishment.''
Insert Passive-Aggressive Comment About Tyler Ennis & Jerami Grant Here.
What I especially found interesting about Mike Waters's piece on Christmas was the way Rak detailed the life of a student-athlete. For him, at least, it's not the break-neck, time-deprived tale you might think. Of course, there's probably a huge difference between the time required of a basketball player and that required of a football player. It also likely speaks to Jim Boeheim's aura of laid-back responsibility about the program. Take care of your business and the rest takes care of itself.
Oh and there's also this:
Christmas can rattle off the classes that he liked. Oceanography. Writing. Nutrition. Sex education.
Wait a minute, I'm pretty sure that's Aquaman's curriculum as well.
