The intertwined nature of branding, marketing, and transactional results forge a constant carousel of player-coach-program dynamics that are not lost on Musselman, who obviously also deserves credit for his vision of what the program could grow into, how he would share that vision with recruits starting with Moody as he painted the picture of how he would help him and others get the most out of their time in college while helping prepare them for the NBA (the latter of which was in the Head Hog’s wheelhouse as a coach for decades). Moody was - and he remains - THE BLUEPRINT that is proof of concept that a player choosing Arkansas can have it all: A starring role as the catalyst of a nationally relevant team, an individual achiever stockpiling postseason awards, a brand-builder for himself and the program, and ultimately a stock-riser as an NBA draft prospect. Perhaps nobody owes Moody a greater level of gratitude than Musselman, because as the first one-and-done domino - and this was just before the launch of NIL-money influences making college destinations more attractive - to fall favorably for the Razorbacks combined with captaining the best Arkansas season in over a quarter of a century, Moody was more than the first example that Musselman could use in luring top-shelf talent to Fayetteville as he sought to compete for annual national recruiting championships while building his program. These are folks at the top of their professions in basketball - Steve Kerr (multi-NBA champion as a player and head coach), Eric Musselman (currently near the top of the head coaching profession in college basketball and a former NBA head coach), Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green (all three are sure-fire future Naismith Hall of Famers) - all of whom have taken turns extolling the virtues of Moody’s beyond-his-years wisdom, both as a player and as a person. That’s not hyperbole, not when you listen to the old men in the room talk respectfully and affectionately about Moody. That’s because the recently turned 21-year-old and third-year-pro-to-be is also a verified old soul rich with talents as a speaker, as a writer and poet, as a businessman, as a leader, as a role model, and as a human being. 14 overall by Golden State in 2021, the program’s first-ever and currently only recipient of an All SEC first team / Freshman of the Year / Newcomer of the Year trio of postseason honors, the best player and top pro prospect spearheading the program’s deepest NCAA Tournament run (Elite Eight in 2020-21) in 26 years, and the youngest Pro Hog / the program’s only pro rookie to win an NBA championship.Īlways and forever a 5-star through and through, Moody goes above and beyond being the Arkansas trailblazer as a one-and-done basketball recruiting prize and most-decorated and accomplished freshman-to-young-pro ever. LITTLE ROCK - It may be coincidental, but there’s also a certain heightened level of irony that goes with the recent three-plus-week frenzy of three Arkansas Razorbacks one-and-dones blasting into the late-June 2023 NBA Draft that quickly transitioned into a coronation of each flashing brilliance at times in the early-to-mid-July NBA Summer League, all with the Head Hog in attendance and rightfully hawking his program in front of national TV audiences, and all of it followed up just days later by the celebratory homecoming of the program’s original one-and-done, Little Rock native Moses Moody.Īnd by original, we mean much more than Moody being the Hoop Hogs’ first-ever one-and-done, the program’s first NBA Draft lottery pick in 15 years when he was selected No.
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