Country Star Reveals his Appreciation for 76ers and Love of Joel Embiid
A towering presence at six-foot-seven, you can tell this guy played his share of basketball in his day. As a matter of fact, he was awarded a four-year athletic scholarship to Drury University. Basketball is in his blood!
But so is country music. And that’s what led Matt Stell to disobey his college coach and stay out late on the nights he was supposed to be in. But Matt didn’t go out to watch country music. He performed it. Matt would sneak out to the local honkytonks to hone his skills. When his coach found out, the guy flipped his lid! But that didn’t stop Matt. Instead, he chose a stage name and snuck out each night to perform, not as Matt Stell, but as his alter-ego “Paul Wayne Walker.”
Maybe Matt’s coach never caught on. Or, if he did, maybe he didn’t stop him because Matt was still a force on the court. Either way, Matt continued to play in the bars as well as on the court and eventually received a Masters degree in Communications.
I guess, after you’ve balanced grades, sports, and music for long enough, you feel like you can do anything, so that’s when Matt went on a medical mission to Haiti, and was so inspired he applied for and was accepted to a pre-med program at Harvard’s Extension School.
Whoa. Didn’t see that coming, did you? Don’t get too excited. There’s a reason we don’t call him Dr. Matt Stell (or Dr. Paul Wayne Walker). It seems fate had other plans.
Just before Matt was supposed to report to school, he got the opportunity to write music, which led to a management deal, so that’s the path he took. These days you can see Matt in a recording studio more often than shooting three-pointers on the basketball court. But his passion for the game continues, so it was no surprise that Matt would bring up our Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs against the stinking Boston Celtics. What we’re most pleased about is the side he is clearly on Check it out in my conversation with Matt Stell …
