Believe it or not, it has been over four years since Eric Devendorf declared for the NBA Draft and ended his tumultuous tenure as a Syracuse Orange basketball player.
Since then, Devo has been all around the world chasing his professional basketball dreams trying to change his image as a cocky, immature punk who made bad decisions in college and seemingly just "didn't get it". Well, according to an outstanding piece by Syracuse.com's Donna Ditota, believe it or not, that may actually be happening.
"It's made me a stronger person to go through the stuff that I went through," Devendorf said. "Not getting picked up by the NBA. Having to go overseas. Traveling. Being away from my family. It's frustrating being away from your family and not knowing the atmosphere you're in. Everybody speaks a different language. Especially this past year for me in Ukraine. It was pretty tough. It was mentally draining. But I got through it and I felt like I was the better person for it."
Devo is currently looking for work, but says his game, body and mental state are in good shape and he's ready to do whatever he needs to do to provide for his family -- his has two little girls -- and continue to play basketball.
"He's matured drastically in his thought process and how he deals with adversity," his agent, Chris Luchey, said. "It's all a level of maturity. He's in a really, really good place. Everything with him is really positive."
"Right now, with Eric Devendorf, everything is very positive, very smooth," Luchey said. "It's a pleasure working with him. He deals with the reality of things very easily."
As you probably know, Devendorf is a co-host on the weekly radio show Syracuse Legends with Mike Bristol, every Friday at 6 p.m. It is there Syracuse fans can hear the familiar swagger -- something you either loved or hated when he was a SU player -- but overall it sounds like those cocky days are over.
"I don't know if I regret it. But maybe I would have made better decisions. I think I matured a lot since the time I was in school. Maybe if I thought about it now, yeah, I would have come back. But that's all done with," he said. "I'm just trying to put into perspective the things that matter most. The long-term things make more sense to me. Just focusing on the long term, whatever that may be. I mean, I made a lot of dumb decisions back in school. But I learned from that."
If you haven't check out Donna's piece on Devendorf at Syracuse.com.