No matter how you measure the growth of a person as a missionary, Collin had a successful mission. He grew spiritually. He worked hard.

Collin Chandler was already being talked about in NBA circles before he submitted his paperwork to serve. That kind of commitment to the gospel and the Savior deserves our admiration and respect.

Collin hopes to play in the NBA one day. He might actually have the skills to do it. That is TBD, but he has as good a shot to do it as anyone from the state of Utah since Frank Jackson.

At this point, the family is "all in" on Kentucky. BYU is Plan B. I'm as pro-BYU as anyone, but I can recognize why Collin made the decision he did. If he succeeds at Kentucky, he will get drafted. I personally think a lot has to go right for that to happen. There's mission rust. There's playing a D-1 schedule against top tier talent. He will have to beat out already proven guys just to get playing time. If he gets playing time, which I'm sure he will, he will have to be productive with that playing time. There are certainly many questions to be answered.

But, the one thing Collin has proven already - he answered the call to serve. He did so in spite of so much pressure to focus on serving an "NBA mission" like Jabari Parker or Frank Jackson or Jimmer. I never blamed Jimmer or Jabari for forgoing a mission to focus on their NBA career, and I would have certainly understood if Collin had followed that same path. But he didn't. He chose to serve. That takes guts. I know people were telling him he was throwing away his chance to play in the league by serving.

I hope Collin does succeed at Kentucky. I hope he is able to make his dreams come true and play in the league someday. Why should I hold any grudge against him for choosing Kentucky over BYU? He was a model missionary and a great example to my children. I can point to Collin and say, look at what he did. He was already on NBA draft boards and still chose to heed the call from a prophet and serve. That is remarkable in this day and age with the pressures kids face and mean things people say on social media to discourage our youth from even attending church, let alone setting aside their personal lives to serve a mission for two years away from their home, family, and people they love. That's really, really hard to do for anyone, let alone someone being talked about as having NBA potential.

Elder Chandler, thank you for your service and the sacrifice of your time. Best of luck to him in the future. Hopefully, things work out for him in the next chapter of his life (and I expect they will), but BYU will be happy to help him get things back on track if for whatever reason they don't. I wish him nothing but the best in life.