Nahziah Carter is definitely making the most of his chance to reopen his college basketball commitment. Carter was already a three-star basketball recruit out of Bishop Kearney in Rochester, New York, when his commitment to Dayton was reopened thanks to a coaching change. Then his uncle Jay Z showed up to one of his games to really get the Internet to take notice.
Carter spoke to Bleacher Report’s David Gardner about his potential reclassification and touring schools like Georgetown now that he’s back on the market again. Carter talked about looking for the best fit for college and potentially pushing his commitment back another season to return to prep school. He also spoke about his famous family member and some drama the Carter brothers had when they were younger.
Carter said that the widely-reported appearance of Jay Z was actually the first time his uncle had ever seen him play.
“I’m over here on the East Coast and he lives more out there on the West Coast, so he didn’t really have a chance until now,” Carter said. “But I told him he should come out because I was playing in his area, and he showed up. I was happy to have him there.”
Carter did say having Jay Z show up to his game finally made people stop asking if he was really related to the rapper. One other benefit: it’s definitely made more people pay attention to his game.
I’ve never really felt that much pressure about it, but people never really used to know. Now I guess it’s kind of getting out there. I know that more people are going to be watching me and evaluating me and that there are going to be a lot more opinions, but I’m not worried about it.
Later in the interview, Carter confirmed something Jay Z has talked about and mentioned in his songs: he actually shot Nahziah Carter’s father when he was 12. Carter called it “pretty crazy” but said his family doesn’t talk about the incident that much.
“My father tells me some great stories from when they were growing up, and so does my grandma, but they don’t really talk about that one too much,” Nahziah said. “Honestly, we usually laugh about it. I don’t know why, but we find it kind of funny. I mean, Jay Z shot our dad. That’s pretty crazy.”
The interview has some other great tidbits in there, and it sounds like Carter is taking a smart approach to his newfound attention and chance to recommit. If he doesn’t commit to a college and pushes it back another year, expect to see quite a few highlights of him dunking on high schoolers to hit the internet next season.
