Michigan State Basketball: Cassius Winston featured in ESPN senior tribute

Cassius Winston’s senior season was cut short and ESPN made sure the Michigan State basketball star knew that his story is just beginning.

Still sad about the abrupt end of Michigan State’s 2019-20 season and Cassius Winston’s career in East Lansing? You’re not alone.

Three months later, fans are still left wondering “what if?” Not only is it the fans left wondering this question, but the players whose seasons were cut short have echoed the same sentiments.

Seniors, however, have the worst “what if?” cases of anyone.

They went from “this is going to be my final run” to “it’s time to move on” in a matter of weeks and that’s heartbreaking to think about.

Cassius was looking like the leader of yet another Final Four team and potential national champion, coming off a Big Ten title (his third straight) but it never happened. COVID-19 swept the nation and ended his college career a month early.

Highlight videos of Cassius’ career circulated like wildfire shortly after the official cancellation of the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments and goodbye letters were written, but three months later, ESPN’s Robin Roberts wrote a heartfelt letter to Cassius and the rest of the 2020 senior class.

And it was awesome.

When you see Tom Brady in the intro, you probably think the video is about Michigan or even his time in college, but he touches on how painful it must be to lose a senior season and a chance to make a run at a national title before Roberts takes over and reads a letter she penned to Cassius and Oregon women’s basketball star Sabrina Ionescu.

Just hearing her talk about just how tough it is to see everything come together at the right time near the end of the year just to have the rug pulled out from under them was tough.

But Roberts didn’t write the letter to make Cassius feel bad about losing the end of his final year at Michigan State, rather let him know that this is just the beginning of his story. He may not have had that final run that he dreamed of when he came back for one more season, but now he gets to write the rest of his story.

This isn’t said too often in East Lansing, but ESPN absolutely knocked this one out of the park.