Sophomore Chris Clement is a guard on the men’s basketball team hailing from Austin, Texas. He found great success in high school, winning all-state academic honors and a spot on a number of regional first-teams and currently backs up senior guard Doug Davis at Princeton. Chris recently sat down with the 'Prince' to discuss "Space Jam," "the crack"and why he prefers LeBron over Kobe.
Q: What is your role on the basketball team at Princeton?
I play behind senior Doug Davis. Doug’s the man — I’ve asked him to really take me under his wing and show me the right way to play on and off the court. Hopefully starting next year I’ll have a bigger role, but right now it’s whatever the coach wants me to do. I also bring a lot of energy to the team, and I have a strong defensive focus—I really don’t like to let my man score.
Q: Who is your professional athletic role model?
Back when I lived in Texas, there was a player who played at the University of Texas and is in the pros now. His name is D.J. Augustin. My friends back home used to say my fascination was borderline stalking. After the game I’d wait around for him to get done with interviews, and then I’d ask him questions about the game. He’s my man. He plays for the Charlotte Bobcats now.
Q: How did you get started playing basketball?
A: I can’t really think of a defining moment, but there are pictures of me when I was two or three years old holding a little Nerf basketball. During my early years when I was growing up in Palo Alto, Calif., I remember my parents taking me to football and basketball games. The basketball games stick out. I remember my mom telling me much later she was worried about the noise and the band and the wild crowd, but I always had a great time, so I think it was meant to be.
Q: If you didn’t play basketball, what sport would you play?
A: My roommate is on the Ultimate Frisbee team. I always see them playing when I walk down to Jadwin Gymnasium, and it looks pretty intense. That’s something I would definitely try.
Q: Where are you from, and what is it like there?
A: I’m from Austin, Texas. It’s a great city. USA Today ranked it the number one city to live in if you’re in your 20s. Austin is a really big college town with a lot of energy. Whenever I get a chance to go back home, I love being there.
Q: What was your “welcome to college” moment?
A: Freshman year, I remember having workouts at 6:30 in the morning and going to bed three hours before. That’s kind of surreal: You want to complain, but it’s what you worked your whole life to be here for.
Q: What are you majoring in at Princeton?
A: I’m thinking about studying religion. I grew up with a spiritual background, so I find it interesting to study the prominent religions around the world.
Q: What has been your favorite class at Princeton so far?
AAS 353: African American Literature: Origins to 1910. It’s pretty cool. Our professor Daphne Brooks often makes connections from prominent rap artists and lyrics from popular songs now and shows the connections to slave narratives and forms of rebellion that were apparent back in the 1700s and 1800s.
Q: Can you dunk?
A: Nah. That’s one of the jokes on the team: “Go throw Chris an alley-oop.”
Q: What’s your favorite basketball video game?
A: Definitely the NBA 2K series.
Q: “Space Jam,” “White Men Can’t Jump” or “Hoosiers,” and why?
A: Definitely "Space Jam." There’s no better combination of cartoons and basketball. We actually have a "Space Jam" poster in my common room.
Q: What’s your longest shooting streak?
A: I had 19 points in the first quarter one time back in high school, and I don’t think I missed during that streak.
Q: LeBron or Kobe? Why?
A: I was always a LeBron guy. Kobe’s great, but there’s always been something about his demeanor I don’t really like. You get a lot of slack if you say LeBron now, though, because of how he played in the Finals.
Q: What are your thoughts on the cancellation of the NBA season this year?
A: I’m going to be really sad if there’s no NBA Finals to watch this summer. On the bright side, there should be a bigger focus on college basketball, and maybe we’ll get to steal a couple TV games.
Q: At 6 feet 2 inches, you’re much taller than most people, but you have teammates who are as tall as 6 feet 11 inches. Is it disorienting to go from being taller than mostly everyone off the court to shorter than some teammates on the court?
A: It’s funny because whenever we travel, people always talk to my teammate, saying, “You guys must play basketball,” and completely overlooking me, thinking I’m the manager or something. That can be pretty funny.
Q: Tell me about your former coach Sydney Johnson ’97.
A: He’s a very, very intense guy. That was a big difference for me coming from high school. The amount of attention to detail and passion for the game was a big thing with him.
Q: Last year, the men’s basketball team beat Harvard on a buzzer-beater to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and then very nearly upset fourth-seeded Kentucky. What was the most memorable moment of this experience for you?
A: The whole experience was surreal because I’ve been a college basketball fan since I was three or four years old. To actually be in that experience was pretty crazy. When we beat Harvard at the last second, the amount of support we got was amazing.
Q: Who is the quirkiest member of the men’s basketball team?
A: Probably junior [forward] Ian Hummer. He’s a great player, but he does some random off-the-wall type stuff. He has this little beanie hat he wears in the locker room before every game.
Q: Who do you think has the biggest vertical leap on the team?
A: Sophomore [guard] Ben Hazel has a big vertical, and he likes to let people know about it. Junior [point guard] Jimmy Sherburne has a pretty good bounce. Ian has a pretty good bounce, too.
Q: Are you involved in any other groups on campus?
A: Yeah, I’m involved in Princeton Faith and Action, and there’s a group called Legacy Ministries I’m a part of. My friend and I get to emcee the weekly church services called Truth Thursdays. I’m also involved in their Bible studies.
Q: What’s the best thing about being an athlete at Princeton?
A: The preparation for down the road. Once you graduate here, playing a sport and doing the class work at the same time, there’s nothing that can be thrown at you that you can’t handle.
Q: What’s the worst thing about being an athlete at Princeton?
A: The process of that preparation. I remember one game last year when we beat Penn to clinch the Ivy League title. It was a big game, but I remember that I had a paper due the next day, so I couldn’t really enjoy the game as much as I would have liked.
Q: Do you have any pre-game rituals?
A: Yeah, I like to watch my favorite players on YouTube. I don’t think my team knows this, but I have a little highlight tape that one of my old roommates made for me. I definitely watch that whenever I can.
Q: What’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod?
A: I’ve got three full albums of Alicia Keys.
Q: Tell me about some of the basketball team traditions.
A: We have yet to do it this year, but we have a tradition for the freshman we call “the crack.” Whenever you go on the road, whichever freshman you choose, you try to put him in the crack, which is the space between the bed and the wall, and you push the mattress over him and trap him. Last year Kareem [Maddox '11] came up with an upgrade to the crack: Crack 2.0. He tried to trap me in the space between the toilet and the bathtub. That’s a definite Princeton basketball tradition.
Q: If you were a T-shirt, what color would you be?
A: Well, my teammates make fun of me because I have a lot of vibrant T-shirts in my wardrobe. I wear a lot of purple, pink and lime green.
Q: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
A: It would be to fly — deal with no traffic and jump over the entire team playing basketball and get an easy two points.
Q: What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not playing basketball?
A: I like chilling and listening to some Ne-Yo soul music and relaxing with my friends.
Q: Any shout-outs?
A: Shout-out to my man Doug Davis. Also, shout-out to Ben Hazel and freshman [guard] Clay Wilson.
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