Meet the Commenters: KU Chief

Thanks for joining us KU Chief. You have been the resident NBA fan on RCT and author of the excellent NBA Hawks series. In your opinion as a fan and as a young doctor, will we ever see the realized potential of Joel Embiid that we all know is there

First off let me apologize to the RCT populace for not publishing my season retrospective for NBAHawks, school and life have been... Hectic. As for your question, if you had asked me before this most recent setback I would've been very confident that Joel would become everything that he could be, just slightly behind schedule... Now, however, I'm tempering my own expectations somewhat. That said, even a non-maximized Embiid could still be otherworldly in 5 years. I'm most disappointed that he likely won't be playing this year because it may be my last year here and I would've loved to see as much of him as possible.

Let's go back a little bit. Where did you grow up? What did your folks do? How big was your family?

I was born in Olathe, Kansas and lived the years before my memory coalesced in Prairie Village before spending my youth back in Olathe. My pops is a physician and does oncology, and my mom was an accountant before I ruined her hopes and dreams and she left work. I have a younger sister as well who is far smarter and more driven than I and is now finishing up at Baylor.

What kind of things were you into as a kid/teenager?

I was always a big sports fan, I recall reading the Saturday and Sunday sports section of the KC star before going to Chiefs games in elementary school and then just dropping knowledge on the fans around my dad and I... In hindsight I was probably insufferable haha (this is the part where everyone goes... WAS?) . I played soccer, baseball, flag football, and basketball until HS, where I just played golf, because high school golf is a dreamland. I was also a car aficionado and had like 6 car magazine subscriptions throughout my young adult life

What made you pick KU?

I was between KU and the University of Virginia, and I knew that I wanted to do medicine afterwards, so I figured I'd go in-state and shell out the cash when I was forced to for med school. The honors program was also big as it made KU a lot smaller, which I think benefited me.

When did you know you wanted to go into medicine? Was there a moment of clarity that made you pick that field?

I've known that I wanted to do medicine since I was in elementary school, so it's tough to pick a specific moment, but it was always great when one of my dad's patients would come up while we were at dinner or somewhere out and about and introduce their family and rave about him helping them out, that stuck with me.

I always wanted to be a doctor when I was younger. That was until in high school I found out you have to practice on cadavers, at which point I noped my way into a new career path. What was that experience like? Any notable moments or stories?

It's very surreal dissecting a cadaver, but it's honestly less ridiculous than when you see actual surgery, because how weird is it that you're just cutting open a living, breathing person... That said, my cadaver was cool because he had a generally normal anatomical layout (which was super helpful for testing purposes) but with a gigantic leg lipoma, the resection of which made me consider going into surgery for a whole 30 seconds.

What kind of doctor do you hope to be? How does that work anyway, do you have to pick one early on or towards the end of medical school?

I think I'm leaning towards medical oncology. You choose the areas in which you'll apply to residencies at the end of your third year or beginning of your fourth year of med school, then interview during your fourth year and match (like a sorority match) at the end of the year. Since oncology is a subspecialty I'll be looking at Internal Medicine residencies for 3 years of training, then hope to apply to a 3 year hematology/oncology fellowship.

How and when did you find RCT?

I wish I could remember the exact timing on this one, I joined up in 2010, so I likely found the site in '09. I think it was just a search engine that brought me here, but the community is why I stayed, even if I just lurked for a long while.

What has been your biggest success to date and biggest regret?

Biggest success: Med School related things for this one.

Biggest regret: I don't have too many regrets, but probably graduating from KU a year early to jump to med school (I Thomas Robinson'd as he did) It's been great to be a year ahead, but I wonder what I missed out on in my senior year. All told, I don't know if I'd actually change anything.

If I came to visit you, what kind of things would we be doing and where would we go?

If any RCT'ers come out to Philly I would want them to go walk over to Independence Hall, see the Liberty Bell from the street, then hit up reading terminal market for some of the best food one will ever have. After that you've got to do one of the beer gardens, either the pop-ups in the summer or Frankford Hall in the hipster portion of town which works year-round, follow that up with a bite to eat or grab a cheesesteak, any number of other bars for a time, then it's off to Dirty Frank's to end the night right at a divey bar that just begs for you to order a citywide special (a shot of well whiskey and a shelf-of-shame beer) or a Frank's special (a kamikaze-esque shot and a pony bottle of rolling rock or high life). During basketball season you can come to the KU alumni watch parties as I am now the acting chief of that group. If anybody comes out this way and wants to come to a game, hang, or just get the scoop on what's good just let me know and I'll attempt to oblige.

Anything else we might not know about you?

Hmmm, there are probably plenty of things, but few that anyone would care to know... and if you follow my Twitterthen you probably know more about me than you'd care to.

Quick hitters: I'm a rabid consumer of content, whether it's TV/Movies/Podcasts/Articles, I feel like I've got to be caught up on everything, which means I'm always multitasking (is it still "tasking" if it's watching a game on mute while listening to a podcast?)

-I'm a pretty nerdy dude... I read Star Wars expanded universe novels from junior high through today. I'm still salty that after the Disney acquisition they are no longer considered to be canonical.

Lightning Round

Age- 24 as of tomorrow (Ed note - Belated happy birthday!)
Height- 6'1
Where do you live-Philadelphia
Facial hair- None
Any pets- none :(
What kind of car do you drive- Golf GTI
Corrective lenses- Usually Glasses
Hair style- Classic American white dude hair
Favorite movie- Star Wars
Favorite tv show- Breaking Bad/Veronica Mars
Favorite beer or thing to drink- Tank 7/Buffalo Trace and Diet Coke or Barq's
Favorite band- Run the Jewels/Miike Snow
Favorite food- BBQ Ribs. Buffalo Wings a close 2nd.
Favorite non KU team- Royals
All time favorite KU player- Thomas Robinson
First concert- Vampire Weekend at Liberty Hall
First w-2 job- I don't know if Produce Stocker at Hy-vee counts, so I'll go with TBA.
Best athlete seen play live- LeBron James
Favorite dinosaur when you were a kid- Allosaurus