Marcus Lashaun Mann (born December 19, 1973) is an American former

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player who attended Mississippi Valley State University. He became a

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...

minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

Early life

Mann was born in Carthage, Mississippi to parents Annie Mann Gray and Jim Banks, Jr. and was a very active member in his Baptist church while growing up. Mann attended

South Leake High School South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

where he was noted for both his athletic and academic abilities – he graduated as his class's

salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in the United States, Armenia, and the Philippines to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is tradi ...

and was named a top five basketball player in the state of Mississippi.

Basketball career

Community college

Mann was awarded a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

to play basketball at

East Central Community College East Central Community College (ECCC) is a junior college located in Decatur, Mississippi. ECCC serves a five-county district: Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Scott and Winston counties. It opened in September 1928. Band The Band's name is the Wall ...

. During his two-year career he averaged approximately 21 points and 12 rebounds per game. Mann then signed a full athletic scholarship to play his remaining two seasons of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

eligibility at Mississippi Valley State University. Later in life, Mann would also get inducted into ECCC's Academic and Athletic Halls of Fame.

Mississippi Valley State

During the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons, Mann's two at MVSU, he appeared in 56 total games while averaging 19.3 points and 12.7 rebounds per game. During his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season he guided the Delta Devils to a school record 22–7 record, a share of the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

(SWAC) regular season title, the SWAC Tournament championship and MVSU's third-ever berth into the NCAA Division I Tournament. He averaged 21.7 points and 13.6 rebounds per game that season, and his rebounding ability was good enough to lead Division I. Mann was also named the SWAC Player of the Year and was the first player from MVSU to earn that honor.

Later life

In June 1996, one month after graduating ''magna cum laude'', the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

selected him as the 11th pick in the second round (40th overall) in the NBA draft. Between the NBA Draft and the first days of the Warriors' training camp, Mann's desire to play basketball faded away. He felt that he had a higher calling in life, which was working with children as a Baptist minister. On October 31, the day before the Warriors were set to open their season against the Los Angeles Clippers, Mann told the organization that he did not want to play professional basketball and that it would be unfair to both himself and the team to keep going. Golden State released him, and Mann was no longer an NBA player. He sacrificed, minimally, the $220,000 rookie salary along with the glamour of an NBA lifestyle to pursue his calling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Marcus 1973 births Living people American men's basketball players Baptists from Mississippi Basketball players from Mississippi East Central Warriors men's basketball players Golden State Warriors draft picks Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils basketball players People from Carthage, Mississippi Power forwards Southern Baptist ministers