UNC’s Brandan Wright heading for NBA draft

Brandan Wright: "After a lot of consideration and weighing my options out I have decided to enter the 2007 NBA Draft. The reason why I came to Carolina was to get an excellent education along with the great athletic program and I do intend on coming back and earning my degree. I'm giving up my academic eligibility at UNC but not my academic career. I think UNC was a great place for me to shine, especially my abilities and talents. I think I really fit the system well. I'd like to credit my teammates and the coaching staff for the way I played this year and how they set me up to look pretty good at times. I just think entering the draft and being able to play in a system like this is so great for me because I think it's more of a post-out type of game and it's really going to help benefit me playing at the next level. I'd just like to credit my teammates and my coaches for the way they helped me out this year."

Williams: "Just to let you know I've visited with several NBA teams and came up with a scenario of where we thought Brandan would be drafted and gave him the salary scale so he'd know what to get behind each one of those positions. We stepped back and told him we'd support him in anything he did. I think that the bottom line it came down to trying to be able to take care of his family and do some things for them financially that he's not able to do at this time. There's tremendous possibilities of what he can do by making himself available to the NBA draft."

Wright: "I was definitely torn in my decision. There are some many positives and negatives of me entering the draft and other guys entering the draft. I feel like the positives outweigh the negatives, especially when it comes when you have the opportunity to take care of your family at a young age like this. It's just hard to pass up."

On when he made his decision:
Wright: "I'm not sure actually. It wasn't with the last meeting I had with coach, but just a little bit before that. I might have made the decision late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning because I was up thinking about it."

On feedback from the general managers on Wright:
Williams: "I think that he's definitely a top ten pick, and in my opinion I think there's a great possibility he would be the third, fourth, or fifth pick in the draft. I don't think there's anyway he'd slide past six or seven. Conservatively speaking I think you can say top ten without any question."

On the hardest part about leaving UNC:
Wright: "Well, the hardest thing for me is leaving my teammates knowing that we had a great season this year and those guys are going to have a great season next year. Just leaving those guys, that's the hardest thing."

On hiring an agent:
Wright: "Not currently. I don't plan on hiring an agent. I might meet with a few agents to get some information, but an agent is really no good to me right now."

On his mother's influence on his decision:
Wright: "Honestly she had no opinion at all. She totally left the decision up to me. She didn't push me to leave or stay or anything like that. My family didn't do anything like that either. Like coach, he pretty much put it on my shoulders, and I had to make a decision and a tough decision at that."