Shady JayI just had this story sent to me, and thought it was well-worth the long read. If you have a few minutes, click here.
We all know recruiting can be a dirty business, if a coach allows it to become that way...and we also knew that many professional sports agents,slither instead of walking. But this article speaks about the lengths agencies go to to launder their actions so they'll come out an acceptable, dingy gray.
I've always had a problem with AAU basketball (as did Gene Keady)- it hurts rivalries like IU v. Purdue (because kids many played together, summer after summer and think of their rivals as team mates), it makes kids grow up too quickly as their parents became less-and-less involved in their summers at an early age, and it even made the game less fun and actually hurt the work ethic of the college players as they saw it as a job, not a game.
All of those points can be debated and discussed...but the fact that agents, shoe companies and shady characters are at every turn is nothing but negative. This new wrinkle of ex-players being involved only makes me respect these jerks less- I already thought Jay Williams was a lousy analyst on EsPN...Now, I know he's a pretty horrible recruiter too...and unethical, if not immoral too boot.
I know, I know...it's shocking that a Duke man would get involved with such things!!
7 comments:
"(Pat Barrett's) recent teams featured more than a dozen potential NBA prospects including Love, Gibson, Budinger, James Keefe (UCLA), Brandon Jennings (Europe), Taylor King (Duke before transferring to Villanova), Daniel Hackett (USC), Renardo Sidney (committed to USC), Malik Story (Indiana) and Taylor Harrison (Cal)."
Interesting...
I feel dirty just reading that article.
Isn't he too busy with this NBA career with the Chicago Bulls for this stuff....oh wait.
I feel dirty after reading that article too. I dream of a world where AAU didn't exist at all and college basketball players stayed in school for 4 years and were actually student athletes.
Wow, this Pat Barrett guy is almost as bad as Bryce Brown's mentor.
This is great.....
"The Loves said Ceruzzi Sports never had a chance to sign Kevin, both because of their dealing with Barrett and their discomfort with Jay Williams.
“If I was going with an agent,” said Kevin Love, “why would I ever go with a guy who, no offense, but he crashed a motorcycle into a tree. I’m not going to go with a guy that’s reckless.”"
zing!
Bryce Brown's mentors as pretty slimy...there are too many adults/parents involved in these kids lives that don't care at all about the kid and are only trying to "get theirs".
The reason there are so many bad people in the world is because there are so many bad parents.
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