It's an important month for former Louisville men's basketball star Montrezl Harrell.

Harrell, a member of the Cardinals' 2013 national championship team and an NBA veteran of eight seasons, is back in town to play for The Ville in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) — a 64-team, single-elimination competition with a regional tipping off Saturday, July 20, at Freedom Hall.

Last summer, Harrell sat courtside eagerly watching former U of L teammates such as Chane Behanan, Peyton Siva and Russ Smith vie for, but fall four wins shy of, TBT's $1 million grand prize. Not long after, the big man from Tarboro, North Carolina, was diagnosed with a torn ACL and a meniscus tear in his right knee; which required surgery and resulted in the Philadelphia 76ers waiving him before the start of the 2023-24 season.

So, Harrell linking up with The Ville offers not only a chance to take a trip down memory lane but also a chance to prove he still has what it takes to compete at the sport's highest level.

If Step 1 of that process was rehabbing his knee, Step 2 was pulling back the curtains on his mindset heading into TBT with a story published Wednesday for The Players' Tribune. It's titled, "Montrezl Harrell Has Baggage."

Without going into too much detail — because the whole point of the story is getting Harrell's unfiltered take on the past several years — the big man recounts the impactful death of his grandmother; his heated exchange with former Los Angeles Clippers teammate Paul George during the 2020 playoffs at the NBA bubble; battling depression; his felony-turned-misdemeanor marijuana possession case; life as a father; and more.

"Everybody going to say what they’re going to say," he writes. "But at least now, you have my side, too."

Harrell concludes by accepting his baggage — "without all of that, I wouldn’t have who I am now" — and vowing that he's got "a lot of game" left in him.

"Here's how I’m going out: leaving it all on the floor. It's where I've left it every night for eight years — and it's the only way I know how to play. I'm ready to be that hustle dude again, that team-first dude, that bench mob Trezz. That warrior. And there are a lot of things I still haven't done in my career. I still got boxes to check off."

His journey back starts when he takes the court with The Ville.

To read Harrell's story, click here.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Montrezl Harrell, ex-Louisville basketball star, opens up ahead of TBT