The 2020 TBT will be one last ride for Aaron Craft - 247Sports

Most Ohio State fans first learned of Aaron Craft on Nov. 12, 2010. It was a routine season-opening game against North Carolina A&T, a 102-61 win for the Buckeyes. It was also Craft’s collegiate debut where the point guard scored eight points, dished out nine assists and recorded one steal in 22 minutes for Thad Matta's team.

Over the course of his freshman season, Craft became a household name, one beloved by Scarlet and Gray fans and universally despised in opposing gyms. Little changed over his next three seasons, as Craft was a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and named to the conference’s All-Defensive Team each of his four seasons as a Buckeye.

Since departing Ohio State after the 2013-14 season, Craft spent six years playing professional basketball, largely in Europe. But sometime in the next several days, that basketball career will come to an end, as Craft announced the 2019-20 season would be his last.

“It obviously wasn’t a light decision,” Craft said of retiring. “It’s definitely not just me; my family, my wife. Honestly, it feels like a perfect storm of things came together for this to be the time to step away. Number one, we had a son who is about 17 months old now. So I guess it really just makes you think about the future a little bit more. And going to school now provides me an opportunity to really kind of set up a career for the rest of my life.”

It was last October when Craft made official a decision he had contemplated for some time. Even during his playing days at Ohio State, the point guard discussed plans of returning to the university for medical school and becoming a doctor. But opportunities to play professional basketball put that on hold.

Since receiving his undergraduate degree, Craft has played professionally in the NBA G-League, in Hungary, Italy, France and Montenegro. He has won championships and individual awards, but each summer since 2017, he and a number of Buckeyes return home to the United States to team back up and take part in The Basketball Tournament.

It is in this summer’s TBT, which coincidentally will take place in Columbus, where Craft will suit up in a professional basketball uniform for the final time. And he gets to do it with some of his favorite teammates.

“They’re everything,” Craft said of his Carmen’s Crew brothers during the team’s virtual TBT media day on Monday. “I really look forward to coming back and being around these guys in the summer and that’s what really kind of helped bring a little bit of normalcy to this entire situation going around in the world right now is coming back, getting in a gym with these guys and talking, telling jokes, being with one another and just having a ton of fun. So that part’s been great.”

A year ago, Craft, along with former Ohio State teammates William Buford, Jon Diebler, David Lighty and others with Jared Sullinger and Dallas Lauderdale coaching on the sideline, Carmen’s Crew took home its first TBT title, running through the single-elimination tournament for the $2 million prize. For these Buckeyes involved, it was a culmination of years of playing together after only making it as far as the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament in college.

Now Craft will hope to repeat with his Scarlet and Gray brothers at Nationwide Arena in a condensed version of the TBT.

“It’s tough,” Craft said of preparing for his final games. “I think I get a little lost if I spend too much time thinking about that and then I’m not any help for my team, myself. So I’m really just trying to go into it with an open mind... I don’t want to spend time overthinking, over-analyzing and trying to think ‘This has to be the perfect game.’ For me, it’s just going out there and playing with my family, my brothers and trying to do everything I can to win like I always do and seeing the results at the end.”

While Craft hasn’t allowed himself to think of his final moments as a professional player, his teammates have. After playing with each other in college, it was a rude awakening when Buford stepped on the court for the first time in 2012 without Craft to begin his professional career.

“It’s always great to play with Craft,” he said. “He’s one of my best teammates I’ve ever played with. You don’t really realize it until (he’s gone). When I left college and didn’t actually play with him again in the summer, you realize how easy he makes the game for you as a point guard and as a leader. So of course I’m going to miss playing with him and miss being around my brother.”

For Sullinger, the memories of playing with Craft go back even further. The two Ohio natives were on the same AAU teams in high school and spent two successful seasons together as Buckeyes. Sullinger then played alongside Craft again in the 2017 and 2018 TBT before moving into his coaching role.

The big man agrees with Buford that the always-energetic Craft has made his life on the court easier and admits he might get emotional whenever the point guard’s final game comes.

“This is going to be one of the toughest things for me just because his ability, his effort, his mindset, it’s so contagious,” Sullinger said. “You love being around him as a basketball player because it makes your job so much easier. It’s going to be real tough knowing that this is going to be his last go-round. And I literally ask him every day, ‘Are you sure? Are you ready?’ And he just tells me every time that he’s 100 percent sure.”

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As Craft made clear, this wasn’t a decision he came to quickly. He always knew that being a doctor was in his future once his playing days were over. And while he knows he can still play the game he loves, and plans to show it again in the 2020 TBT, he also wants to ensure he can take care of his family long beyond basketball.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t be tough for everyone who has played with him when he does indeed walk away.

“The game is going to miss Aaron Craft, Jared Sullinger is going to miss Aaron Craft and I’m pretty sure Carmen’s Crew is going to miss Aaron Craft as well,” Sullinger said. “It’s going to hurt. Honestly, I might cry if we win just knowing that it’s his last game and we’ve played together for so long. So this one’s going to hurt.”

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