{"id":3110,"date":"2017-05-10T12:28:38","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2020-01-23T20:55:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T02:55:36","slug":"nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Nigel Hayes approaches his final few days before graduation this weekend, he has a lot of things on his mind.<\/p>\n

The four-year Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player took to The Players\u2019 Tribune<\/a><\/em> this morning to muse on what his time at UW-Madison was like as a student and athlete \u2014 offering his own words of reflection and encouragement to his fellow students.<\/p>\n

Hayes\u2019 college journey began when he moved from Toledo, Ohio, as a shy freshman in 2013 and promptly became a key role player on a stunning run to back-to-back Final Fours in 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember one day my freshman year, in Micro Econ 101, when the professor singled me out to congratulate me because our team was going to to Final Four,\u201d Hayes wrote. \u201cEveryone stood up and applauded because I was the only representative of the basketball team in the class. I was sitting in the back row practically trying to crawl under my desk to avoid the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his first year in Madison, Hayes has come out of his shell to advocate for change on Wisconsin\u2019s campus and beyond \u2014 becoming one of UW\u2019s most memorable student-athletes along the way.<\/p>\n

He is part of a lawsuit against the NCAA<\/a> calling for student-athletes to be paid<\/a> for their work. He also spoke out on Twitter to make points about race relations in the U.S.<\/a> and athletes using their voices to speak out on all sorts of topics \u2014 not just sports.<\/p>\n

Now Hayes will move on to the NBA next month, with hopes of getting drafted and continuing his basketball career just a little bit longer.<\/p>\n

But before he does that, he issued a challenge \u2014 full of classic Nigel Hayes wit and charm \u2014 to his fellow graduates in the class of 2017:<\/p>\n

Never accept it when someone says, \u201cJust shut up and play.\u201d Or whatever the equivalent is in your field.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t accept it when they say, \u201cStay in your lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s use all possible lanes. Let\u2019s create new lanes. Each of us is more than just the job we do for a few hours a day.<\/p>\n

Whether we play basketball or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paradox of education is precisely this,\u201d James Baldwin wrote, \u201cthat as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you, Wisconsin, for helping me learn that. (There, I just quoted a famous writer like you\u2019re supposed to do in a graduation speech.)<\/p>\n

And thank you to all my classmates, teammates, coaches, professors and friends for being part of a community that I will always be grateful for. If you care about something, you want to make it better. I hope that in some small way I challenged Wisconsin to be better. I know it made me a better student, athlete and person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hayes will graduate this Saturday, May 13 with a degree in finance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Nigel Hayes approaches his final few days before graduation this weekend, he has a lot of things on his mind. The four-year Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player took to The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5153],"tags":[1339,882,1341,990,79,2550,586],"yoast_head":"\nNigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech | The Bozho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The graduating Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player has offered his own words of reflection and encouragement to his fellow students via The Players' Tribune.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Badgers' basketball star has issued a challenge to fellow graduates.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bozho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Badgers' basketball star has issued a challenge to fellow graduates.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Daniels\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/thebozho\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebozho\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":280,\"caption\":\"The Bozho\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"description\":\"Seeing things. Madison, Wisconsin.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"David Stluka\/UW Athletics\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/\",\"name\":\"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech | The Bozho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"The graduating Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player has offered his own words of reflection and encouragement to his fellow students via The Players' Tribune.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f13e18e773c89ea5882a68cf555a858\"},\"headline\":\"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":491,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Basketball\",\"Graduation\",\"NCAA\",\"Nigel Hayes\",\"Sports\",\"University of Wisconsin-Madison\",\"Wisconsin Badgers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f13e18e773c89ea5882a68cf555a858\",\"name\":\"Nick Daniels\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31295c932f787ad2e1cb1efe273f851?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31295c932f787ad2e1cb1efe273f851?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nick Daniels\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/author\/nick-daniels\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech | The Bozho","description":"The graduating Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player has offered his own words of reflection and encouragement to his fellow students via The Players' Tribune.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech","og_description":"The Badgers' basketball star has issued a challenge to fellow graduates.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/","og_site_name":"The Bozho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/","article_published_time":"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech","twitter_description":"The Badgers' basketball star has issued a challenge to fellow graduates.","twitter_image":"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg","twitter_creator":"@thebozho","twitter_site":"@thebozho","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nick Daniels","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization","name":"The Bozho","url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/","http:\/\/instagram.com\/thebozho","https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebozho"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png","width":600,"height":280,"caption":"The Bozho"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/","name":"The Bozho","description":"Seeing things. Madison, Wisconsin.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"caption":"David Stluka\/UW Athletics"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/","name":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech | The Bozho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00","description":"The graduating Wisconsin men\u2019s basketball player has offered his own words of reflection and encouragement to his fellow students via The Players' Tribune.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f13e18e773c89ea5882a68cf555a858"},"headline":"Nigel Hayes offers up his own commencement speech","datePublished":"2017-05-10T17:28:38+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-24T02:55:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#webpage"},"wordCount":491,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Hayes-crDavidStluka.jpg","keywords":["Basketball","Graduation","NCAA","Nigel Hayes","Sports","University of Wisconsin-Madison","Wisconsin Badgers"],"articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/nigel-hayes-offers-up-his-own-commencement-speech\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f13e18e773c89ea5882a68cf555a858","name":"Nick Daniels","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31295c932f787ad2e1cb1efe273f851?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31295c932f787ad2e1cb1efe273f851?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nick Daniels"},"url":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/author\/nick-daniels\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}