In true Greenie fashion, Mason Plumlee ’09 gave everything he could to 100 young, impressionable basketball players last week. Never mind that his own professional free agency was pending at the time.
High character paired with ability is why Mason is now going on Year 12 in the NBA.
He showed no signs of being distracted at the Plumlee Basketball Camp which wrapped up Wednesday and worked out a deal with the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Financial terms of the one-year contact have not been disclosed.
Mason, 34, is expected to be the backup to Suns center Jusuf Nurkić and is coming off a season in which he averaged 5.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Phoenix will be Mason’s sixth NBA team in a professional career that is longer than any other player to come from a western North Carolina high school. Mason was originally drafted by Brooklyn with the 22nd overall pick of the 2013 draft and has also had stints with Portland, Denver, Detroit, and Charlotte.
Mason was inducted into the Christ School Athletic Hall of Fame two years ago.
He will forever be known as the first McDonald’s All-American in school history and led Greenie teams to a 99-8 record and state championships as a sophomore, junior, and senior. Mason finished with 1,268 career points and 810 rebounds before going to win an NCAA championship at Duke (2010).