Menu
Cardinal rule: Outhustle everyone in sports, life
As anyone who ever saw him play would probably expect, Brian Cardinal is diving headfirst into his new career.
Approaching life as he did his basketball career seems to have come naturally for Cardinal.
Known for his endless energy, grit, hustle, bull-in-the-china-shop play, first as a Purdue University star (1996-2000) and then a 12-year National Basketball Association survivor, the 38-year-old Cardinal told the Purdue Club of Putnam County he unequivocally owes his success to his alma mater.
"My time at Purdue was incredible," noted Cardinal, now assistant director of the school's John Purdue Club, adding the experience not only motivated him but helped him "focus and set my path" for a successful post-basketball career.
"I can trace it all back to my time at Purdue," he offered.
In his current role, Cardinal focuses on membership and fundraising, works with children within the community and shares his basketball and life experience with the Purdue's athletes.
"The chance to come back to Purdue has been a terrific experience," he assured the audience at Autumn Glen in Greencastle Monday night. "Hopefully I can help impact lives the way the experience impacted mine.
"Basketball's been great to me," Cardinal added, "and I think I can impact the game from where I'm at (without coaching). My job gives me a chance to go around to different clubs and say thank you for supporting Purdue University, thank you for supporting my career and thank you for wearing the black and gold."
Anyone who ever saw Cardinal wear that black and gold will recall him flying all over the court, diving after loose balls, chasing down rebounds and in general being a defensive pest and disrupting the other team's offense. If he was on your team, you loved the way he played; if he was playing against your team, he was the Boilermaker you loved to hate.
"Diving all over and doing the crazy things I did," Cardinal said, "I did for Purdue and for Coach (Gene) Keady and our fans. My niche at Purdue was as a rough-and-tough guy, playing defense, taking charges and diving all over after the ball."
But when he entered the NBA, first with the Detroit Pistons as the 44th player taken in the 2000 draft, the 6-foot-8 Cardinal knew he would never last trying to play with such reckless abandon in the pros.
So he redefined his role, focusing on hitting a few three-pointers, grabbing some rebounds and still being a pest on the defensive end.
It worked well enough for Cardinal to endure 12 years in a league in which the average career is just three to four years.
How did your body hold up to a dozen years in the NBA, he was asked.
"Well, I didn't play a lot," Cardinal smiled, noting he "got out of the NBA with a few bumps and nicks" after a career punctuated by a 2011 NBA title as a Dallas Maverick before he retired the next season. "If somebody had said in 2000, 'you're going to play 12 years in the NBA,' I'd have said, 'You're nuts.'"
These days Cardinal may be getting a little payback for his legendary energy. Residing near Westfield, he and his wife have three children and that boundless Cardinal energy has apparently not skipped a generation.
"I'm pretty sure I know where my kids get it," he grinned, adding that after experiencing such infectious energy as a parent, "I call my parents once a week to apologize."
Coach Keady told him one time after a particularly active effort, that his third-grade teacher probably quit after having Cardinal for a year.
"I said, 'Coach, he did!'" Cardinal said to laughter. "His heart wasn't in it."
Of course, Cardinal couldn't get away from the Purdue crowd without touching on the basketball rivalry with Indiana, especially the Bob Knight-Gene Keady days.
"Playing at Assembly Hall when I was there, they used to chant 'Rogaine' (at him). How mean was that?" the follicly challenged Cardinal asked in good humor.
The Boilermaker great admitted he was "always a big fan of Coach Knight," suggesting Knight and Keady were actually a lot alike.
"Coach Keady has a little crazy in him as well," Cardinal said, adding that "going down to Bloomington and winning was really special."
Cardinal said he always made a point to shake hands with Knight after each game, and in his final visit to Bloomington, Knight put his arm around Cardinal, playfully putting him in a headlock before telling him, "You'd have looked a heck of a lot better in red and white."
He still sees Coach Keady occasionally, including recently at a golf outing in South Carolina.
"He still harasses me every time I see him," Cardinal said. "I think that's because he loves me ... but I'm 50-50 on that right now."
With his basketball days now over, Cardinal says he's become a hobby farmer.
"One thing I have proven I can grow is weeds," he said. "I'm a master gardener in my own mind.
"But I'm working on my farming skills."
If that's true, those weeds had better watch out with Cardinal diving headlong into that field.