In the three months since he unceremoniously left the Auburn basketball program, Kareem Canty has had a lot of time to think.
To reflect. To hate watching his former team struggle without him. To go overseas and return to the United States to train and pursue his dream of playing professional basketball
Canty spoke with AL.com about his departure from Auburn, what he's been doing since and where he hopes basketball takes him next.
The Harlem, New York native led Auburn with 18.3 points and 5.3 assists per game during his 21 starts at point guard and helped deliver back-to-back wins over Kentucky and Alabama that were the high point of Auburn's season.
But Canty's actions after those wins ended his college career and effectively sent the Tigers into a tailspin, as Auburn went 2-8 beginning with his two-game suspension for "conduct detrimental to the team" and eventual departure.
Both Canty and Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said the suspension was due, at least in part, to an altercation with Steven Pearl, Bruce's son and Auburn's director of basketball operations.
"I said a lot of things, I got into an altercation with Steven Pearl that I regret and I learned from, which led to my suspension," Canty told AL.com. "That was a mistake that I made on my part that I should have just finished out the season. ... I just decided to leave after my two-game suspension because of my frustration with the season and I handled that all wrong instead of just sticking it out and riding with my teammates."
Bruce Pearl said there was more than one incident that caused him to suspend Canty indefinitely.
"It wasn't just a run-in with my son, Steven, there was a series of run-ins," Pearl said. "Kareem is passionate and he's intense and there were times where he was as good as anybody out there on the floor. Had we had more success, had I had a little bit more depth, had we had some better players to play with I really think he could have survived it and not made some of the mistakes that he made."
When Canty left Auburn on Feb. 11 he "didn't have any real plan." First he went overseas and signed a non-guaranteed contract with a team in Germany, where he said he practiced but didn't play in a game.
Canty left Germany and was introduced to Abe Givins, a confidant of several pros who is attempting to launch a new agency with the backing of former NBA players Larry Hughes, Al Harrington and others.
Givins, who is going through the certification process to become an NBA agent, helped get Canty to train at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas, where he's been for the past month.
Canty was disappointed not to be invited to the NBA Combine earlier this month, but admits he had only himself to blame for having left college mid-season.
"My whole life I've been focused on basketball. My whole thing is basketball," he said. "I actually got a chance -- besides in the breaks we had from school -- I actually got a chance to just focus on basketball, no school, no tutoring, no study hall. I get to work on my weaknesses and be better person.
"I'm in the real world now so a lot of the things that I got away with before or that I didn't think were a big deal, it's kind of a big deal to me now. The things that I was taking for granted, I don't take for granted as much anymore. That situation at Auburn really changed how I view things in life."
With the NBA Draft a month away, Canty will continue training either in Las Vegas or Atlanta and taking part in individual workouts with NBA teams.
No projections have Canty, a 6-foot, 183-pound point guard, being drafted, so he is leaving his options open as to whether to try and make it to the next level via the NBA D-League or playing in Europe.
"The key is getting a good agent, getting a couple of tryouts, see if he can catch on," Pearl said. "Then he's going to have to make a choice between whether he goes to the D-League and stays home and stays ready to see if he can get called up for some 10-day contracts or goes overseas and makes a little bit more money."
Canty says he is six hours away from graduating from Auburn and when the time is right, hopes to return to finish his coursework.
Over the next month Canty will try to make the case to NBA teams that he's worth their investment in his playing abilities and he won't run from problems, as he admittedly did throughout his life.
Canty admits to mistakes, though that was also the case during his time on the Plains when he spoke of transferring to numerous high schools before later transferring from Marshall to Auburn, due to a coaching change.
"I went to Auburn as a boy from the city that didn't have a clue about Auburn and I left as a boy still, but I'm transitioning to a man," Canty said. "I look back at it like, 'I really love Auburn and miss everything that they did for me.' ...
"(I learned to) listen to the coaches. All they ever tried to do was help me and I wasn't trying to buy all the way in like I should have. All they ever tried to do was make me a man and I was too focused on other things that caught my attention."