Rashad McCants compares role in UNC scandal to civil rights icons

Rashad McCants compares role in North Carolina academic scandal to civil rights icons.

Former North Carolina basketball star Rashad McCants says that he still doesn't have a relationship with the school he helped win a national championship for and has lost a lot for speaking out against UNC's academic scandal.

North Carolina has been under investigation since 2010, when the NCAA started looking into academic fraud concerning as many as 3,100 athletes in various sports over a two-decade period.

The school faces five top-level charges, including lack of institutional control, and athletes receiving "preferential access" to African and Afro-American Studies classes.

McCants has said during his time at the school that "you just show up and play. That’s exactly how it was" and said that head coach Roy Williams knew about the fake classes.

McCants has been vocal the scandal and said in an interview Thursday on SI Now, that no one from the UNC community has reached out to him.

"Not once. It's very unfortunate that the truth can surface and still no one can come forth and support what's happened. " McCants said. "I never did it any support. I did it for the future. I did it for my kids, your kids. Regardless of anyone denying these claims the truth is always going to come forth."

McCants says he had to sacrifice and "stick his neck" out like other leaders who wanted to see change.

"Like Colin Kaepernick, Malcolm X, Tupac Shakur, Martin Luther King. Whenever you are standing up for somebody's right or any kind of injustice, it's going take something that you are going to lose," McCants said.

McCants, 32, will be playing in the Big 3 3-on-3 league this summer.