How do you want to be remembered?

It’s probably not a question a lot of college athletes contemplate as they consider their next career move. Stay in college or go pro. Stay at your current school or enter the transfer portal. Honor the contract you already signed with your current school’s NIL collective or try to renegotiate for more money.

There’s a lot to ponder in planning your next four months without worrying about your next 40 years.

Which brings us to Dylan Cardwell and Chad Baker-Mazara.

They were two of the starters for the best basketball team in Auburn history, two key contributors known as much for their unique personalities as their consistent production. They said public good-byes to the Plains on the same day last week.

They did it for different reasons to head in different directions. Cardwell is moving on to life after college basketball, his eligibility clock expired. Baker-Mazara is leaving for one more season of college ball somewhere other than Auburn through the transfer portal.

They will be remembered by the Auburn family but in very different ways.

Imagine how many Auburn fans got something in their eyes watching Cardwell’s farewell video. They heard his voice express in his words the privilege it was to spend the last five years there. He made it clear that the name on the front of the jersey and what it represents means as much to him as it does to them.

Cardwell will be that rare individual remembered more for who he was than for what he did, though he did plenty, finishing first in career field-goal percentage, second in dunks and fourth in blocks. Consider what it took to get there.

He played 64 games in an Auburn uniform before getting his first start in the fourth game of his junior year. He didn’t start again that season. He started in the fifth game of his senior season, but it was his only start of the year.

He entered this season, his fifth season on the Plains, having played in 128 games with only two starts. Bruce Pearl rewarded his extraordinary patience, his effervescent personality and his essential position as a team leader by starting him in all 38 games.

Cardwell had the best season of his college career. Auburn had the best season in school history. Forget causation vs. correlation. That is not a coincidence.

He wasn’t the best player on the team. He was the best team player on a roster blessed with a bunch of them. Standing next to The Sporting News national player of the year in Johni Broome, All-SEC freshman Tahaad Pettiford and other special talents, Cardwell stood tall, too, as the player least concerned with his stat line and most invested in the bottom line.

The player who played and won more games in an Auburn uniform than Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, Chris Porter or anyone else will walk away, but he’ll never leave. When he said in that farewell video, “It’s been an honor to play for you,” it was a reminder of what college sports used to be and what today, too often for too many, it’s not.

College sports needs more Dylan Cardwells.

There’s a place for the Chad Baker-Mazaras, too. It would be hypocritical for Auburn fans to denounce him for choosing to play his final college season elsewhere when they celebrated the arrival of Miles Kelly a year ago. The portal giveth, and the portal taketh away, but what the portal does most of all is make one point clear. This is more of a business than it’s ever been. Each player’s business decision is, first and foremost, his business.

Who can fault the short-timers as long as they show up to work and make a positive contribution to the bottom line?

Baker-Mazara spent two productive years at Auburn and helped the Tigers win the 2024 SEC Tournament title and the 2025 SEC regular-season championship. He had moments that made you cringe – see 2024 Yale and 2025 Senior Day Alabama – which only reinforced the conclusion that Auburn was a better team with him than without him.

The fan base rallied to his defense even when his actions were indefensible. As he said in the X post announcing his transfer portal entrance and Auburn exit, “I wanna thank my teammates, coaching staff and the Auburn Family for the incredible support for this past two years!”

Experience suggests his words were sincere, but in these portal departure posts, sincerity can test the boundaries of believability when you go the “with that being said” route after starting on a Final Four team.

Baker-Mazara chose the two-year option for his Auburn experience. It was mutually beneficial until it wasn’t. Cardwell went the distance, and if you want to know the value of that commitment, ask any former Auburn athlete who did the same, walk-on and All-American alike.

The respect he gave and the respect he earned can carry a man long past his playing days. Chad Baker-Mazara will be remembered at Auburn. So will Dylan Cardwell. How they’ll be remembered, and for how long, is where they’ll go their separate ways at last.