Money Players

ESPN investigates OJ Mayo and Rodney Guillory

Last week, I was critical of people who came forward with secondhand, flimsy information alleging agent impropriety. Well, Louis Johnson, a former business associate of Rodney Guillory, blew the whistle on alleged improper relationships involving O.J. Mayo, Rodney Guillory (an LA-based promoter with a questionable past) and Bill Duffy & Associates, a sports agency. Johnson, who does have some character issues, spoke at length with ESPN’s Kelly Naqi.

A disclaimer: I am friends with Bill Duffy and Calvin Andrews. In fact, Bill gave me a nice endorsement quote for my book. I would be disappointed if it is proven that BDA was bankrolling Guillory, particularly without Mayo’s knowledge. I also know the whistleblower, Louis Johnson.

I’ve written a lot about the specter of agents providing direct and indirect benefits to high school and college players. While there are relevant issues related to NCAA rules and amateurism, I doubt I have anything new to add. Definitely read Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel. And listen to Dan Patrick's interview with Sonny Vaccaro. My focus is on elite athletes negatively impacted by agents and their intermediaries who use money to buy them on the cheap.

I tell athletes, hypothetically, if the NCAA said tomorrow it was no longer a violation to take extra benefits from agents and runners, I would still argue strongly that they absolutely should not accept agents' money. The reasons have been discussed ad nauseam on this blog. Most important, when it comes time to select an agent, I want athletes choosing the best agents based on merit, not illicit relationships and benefits. 

A few interesting exchanges and tidbits from Kelly Naqi's investigation:

Mother's intuition
Kelly Naqi interviewed O.J.'s mother in February 2008
Naqi: Do you trust Rodney?
O.J.'s mother: No.
Naqi: Why?
O.J.'s mother: It's a mama feeling. I don't  know yet. If Rodney's intentions are good, fine. If it ever plays out that it's not, it's going to go be terrible.

Selling O.J. on the cheap
Lous Johnson on how much money BDA provided to Guillory
"I know there were roughly anywhere between $200 and $250,000 in cash and other benefits that came from the relationship with BDA.
On how much went directly to O.J.
"My best estimate would be maybe $30,000 max for him and the people that were associated him. Most of that stuff never really made it to O.J. OJ really saw a lot of the scraps. The fact of the matter is OJ has been pimped by Rodney."

Complicity
On whether O.J. was complicit in his dealings
Johnson: O.J. wasn't as complicit in some of the things that happened. And I think I've proven that because he wasn't the direct beneficiary of a lot of things that was happening.
Naqi: But he got something he wouldn't have access to he wouldn't to otherwise and he got what he wanted.
Johnson: Yeah, but at the same time, how can you, I or anyone else really sit here and blame him when his circumstances?...He played within the rules of the game. And this is the game: runners, agents, shoe companies, other elements. This is the game. He had no choice but to play it considering his circumstance, considering what was going on in his life, considering how he was living.

The most direct, damning evidence
In an ESPN Chat on Monday, Kelly Naqi wrote, "OJ told [ESPN's Andy] Katz last night that he did not 'receive any money from Calvin or Rodney or anything.' However, the cell phone number that Katz used to get that quote from Mayo was the same number that shows up on Mayo's September cell phone bill, which we obtained, which shows that that number was billed to Guillory's non-profit organization in California called the ICR Foundation. We also obtained proof that Guillory made the initial purchase of that particular cell phone of OJ's."

Best warning since, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States"
In an October 2006 article CBSSportsline's Greg Doyel forewarned: "Burned by Bush, Southern California should be of wary Mayo."

The fallout
While Johnson's claim that he is trying to save O.J. is dubious, I think basketball on many levels will benefit from these poorly-kept secrets being exposed. Kelly Nagy said in an ESPN chat earlier today, "The NCAA has already contacted me about my report. Based on that conversation, I suspect they'll be looking into this." Stay tuned.

--Marc Isenberg

Oregon basketball team scores with academic success

When it comes to the Academic Progress Report, the NCAA's vital measurement tying scholarships to academic performance, the Oregon men's basketball team ranks in the top 10%. Coach Ernie Kent has been severely criticized, but he shines when it comes to the academic performance of his team.

Writes John Canzano, who typically has negative things to say about Kent:

It's not lost here that the announcement of Kent's success comes while Oregon is building a $20 million academic center for its athletes that will be off-limits to the rest of the student body. As if 325 computers and dozens of employees and a prominent campus building that will be surrounded by a moat-like body of water was what's missing, when all the rest of the coaches in Eugene need to do is save the money, and instead, study Kent.

The lesson, I hope, is that a head coach who cares about the academic success of his players is best investment an athletic department can make. Step one: Recruit guys who get it done on and off the court. I would like to think guys like Bryce Taylor, Malik Hairston and Maarty Leunen are the rule, not the exception in college basketball, but, in reality, they are pretty special. Three seniors, all graduating, and all going pro in their sport.

--Marc Isenberg

Josh Pastner has left the McKale Center

It was just announced that my friend Josh Pastner accepted a position to become an assistant coach at Memphis. Good hire for Memphis and great move by Josh. I hate to see Josh leave the Pac-10, but he's been at Arizona for 12, 13 years, first as a student-athlete and then as an assistant coach. I also think it will be good for him to learn under another great coach like Calipari, whom I become of a big fan of.

Not only can Cal coach, but he consistently puts his players' best interest above all else. (My standard disclaimer: I love when guys stay in school 2, 3 even 4 years, but it is unfair to criticize elite players and also unmotivated students when they go pro.)

Here's what Cal told Derrick Rose prior to making himself eligible for the NBA draft:
"If you want to do what's right for you and your family, you should consider leaving. If you want to do what's right for me and my family, you probably should stay."

And I put this in my Money Players book....
Memphis basketball coach John Calipari famously tore up Dejuan Wagner's scholarship immediately after his freshman year to "make sure he understood he wasn't coming back." Wagner was the sixth pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, but lasted only three years due to medical problems. Said Calipari: "Now you might say [Wagner's] out of the league, but he made $15 million."

Reebok's Chris Rivers on NCAA-NBA partnership

At the Final Four the NCAA and NBA announced an "historic partnership" to improve youth basketball. My friend Chris Rivers, Reebok's director of basketball sports marketing, writes a must-read column in Basketball Times. This month he offers his thoughts on the NCAA/NBA partnership to "raise awareness rather than offend."

From Chris Rivers, Reebok:

I applaud the fact that [the NCAA-NBA Partnership has] raised $5 million dollars to put together a task force of "later to be named" individuals to work in a "later to be named" location and specifically address "later to be named" issues.

Below are just some thoughts that make you go "hmm."

• When was the last time anyone saw David Stern or Myles Brand at a youth basketball game?
• If the NCAA's primary concern is education, how can teams fly three hours for an NCAA Tournament game – two days before it starts – and then tell parents that their son needs to attend summer school to make up for the time missed while traveling?
• If college coaches and universities can have million-dollar shoe contracts and multimillion-dollar all-school deals, why are the July shoe camps being "redflagged" as something that isn't good for the game?
• If the NCAA seems so concerned with a certain element that surrounds youth basketball, why have such a high percentage of college coaches evolved from this same system?
• Who was the last NCAA head coach who used his own personal credit card to make sure his program had hotel rooms during a recent road trip? What about airline tickets? Meals? Rental cars? Keep thinking.
• If youth basketball is in such need of a developmental overhaul to produce better fundamentally sound players, why do underclassmen annually dominate the NBA draft?
• I agree that our system should have more regulations and better training and coaching, like our national soccer system. I have studied some of their infrastructure, and they are very impressive at the youth level. But let's just hope that our international performance record is better than our soccer brethren, which last won the World Cup in 1950.

Excerpts published with permission from Basketball Times. Subscribe at www.basketballtimes.com.

BTW-- Chris has a significant role in the upcoming basketball documentary Gunnin' for that Number #1 Spot."

Cheating accusations are not cheating...

and why college athlete cheaters won't prosper

Earlier I posted on CNBC's Darren Rovell interview with sports agent David Falk. Falk laments that the "sports agent business has become so corrupt." Falk made a vague accusation that an unnamed agent paid an unspecified player college player $500,000. Now that the rumor is out there it will undoubtedly pick up steam quickly, particularly since there are only a few likely candidates.

Cheating explains a lot, especially when some event doesn't quite make sense. Examples: A 170-pound shortstop hits 30 home runs; ergo he took steroids. A McDonald's All-American signs with Podunk State U; ergo he was paid. It's like the old joke explaining why Sam Bowie stayed at Kentucky five years. Answer: He didn't want to take a pay cut.  It gets a laugh, but was there ever any proof?

Falk's friend says this kid took money from an agent, but why put it out there as rumor rather than produce hard evidence? For sure we know it is an NCAA violation for a college athlete and his family to receive $500,000. There's also a 72% chance that this is a violation of a state's Uniform Athletes Agent Act (UAAA), since it is now against the law in 36 states. The next to last thing I want is for rumors to turn into witchhunts. The last thing I want, however, is for cheating agents to prosper.

I do not agree with every NCAA rule. I have spoken and written extensively about things the NCAA and its members can do to improve college athletics, BUT...I still tell any athlete or parent who listens that it is absolutely foolish to take money from an agent or their representatives.

My reasons:
1) Whatever benefit that is offered is not sufficient compensation to risk their college eligibility. That agent is knowingly exposing an athlete to a minefield of potential hazards (no eligibility = no opportunity to impress pro scouts, lawsuits, etc.)
2) I don't like blanket statements, but here's one: a cheating agent is a bad agent. He can't compete by selling vague concepts such as competency and ethics, so he diverts attention from the real issues and, instead, focuses on cold, hard cash.
3) Payments by agents are not gifts, but loans that must be repaid. $500k might sound like a lot, especially to an unpaid "amateur," but even at a 10% interest rate, this is a $50,000 annual benefit. Chump change to an athlete about to turn pro.
4) Taking money from an agent is a sure-fire way to either sign with a bad agent and/or become a victim of blackmail (see Marcus Camby, Reggie Bush). Cheaters cheat because they believe they won't get caught. However, as the media, rival fans and the Internet become more aggressive, the chances of getting caught, I believe, are increasing. You too can be an NCAA sleuth!!

--Marc Isenberg

UPDATE: David Falk explains his "$500,000 and three years too late" comment to Henry Abbott's True Hoop.

The basketball world needs a little West Coast bias

A few college basketball notes...

Love lasts
During Thursday's broadcast of the Hoosier/Razorback game, I heard Billy Packer say that Eric Gordon is the best freshman among a very good class of freshman stars. Not even close. If winning matters, Kevin Love is the best freshman in college basketball since Carmelo. Among all the highly touted Freshman, notice that Kevin Love is the only still playing? Lesson: One player can make a huge difference, but he's got a better chance to make a deep Tournament run when he's integrated into a talented and veteran team, like UCLA.

The Pac-10 overhyped?
The World Wide Leader has never been on the Pac10's bandwagon, but several commentators, including Bobby Knight wondered whether the Conference was really that good, particularly after USC, Oregon and Arizona all rolled over in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Please. (IMO, ASU should have gotten in the Tourny over Oregon and Arizona...ASU would have, I think, given the conference a better chance to win in the first round.) But the Pac10 has three Sweet 16 teams. There are no automatics at this point, but I think any conference would be thrilled to have three entries in a 16-team race.

All this lends credence to those who say there is an East Coast bias. And an ESPN bias. If it doesn't happen during East Coast waking hours or if a conference won't agree to subjugate itself to every ESPN desire, including 9pm midweek start times, then it doesn't matter...at least until NCAA tournament time.

Most officials do not suck
Pac10 teams have been involved in several very close or questionable calls in recent weeks. Stanford and Cal both were hurt by very close end-of-game calls. (IMO, Josh Shipp's shot should have counted, but the refs probably missed the foul on Ryan Anderson). ASU then got a questionable over-the-back call in the first round of the Pac10. Still, my macro view of officiating is that it is overrated, perhaps not over the course of one game, particularly when the media, fans and vast public nonsensically believe that a game was somehow "decided" on a single, bad call. Silly reminder: baskets have the same value whether made in the first minute or last second. Unless there is a conspiracy to fix a game (Thanks to Tim Donaghy, unfortunately not as far fetched as once thought), bad calls tend to even out over the course of a game or at least over the course of a season. Coaches can lobby and fans can scream bloody murder, but the vast majority of officials are very good at what they do and work hard to go unnoticed.

OK, so did Cardinal coach Trent Johnson deserve to get booted from last night's game against Marquette? He deserved the first technical. The second one, I am not so sure. I certainly do not condone what he did. He put his team in a potentially very bad position. Not only did he cost his team 4 points (the equivalent to a turnover that leads to an easy layup...twice!), but a basketball coach is paid a lot of money to improve the chances of his team winning.

I was at the game, but I was not close enough to hear what Johnson did or said. Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl provides a great explanation (extra credit for the Les Mis reference):

Curtis (Inspector Javert) Shaw is out of control. No referee in the country had more than two ejections during the entire season -- except for Shaw, who has now tossed five players or coaches after his shockingly wrong-headed ejection of Stanford coach Trent Johnson in an OT Cardinal win against Marquette...Common sense should dictate whether you make such a drastic call, not some nonsense about following the letter of the overly uptight new bench-decorum rules. If Shaw isn't himself "ejected" from the rest of the tournament, organizers will deserve their own red card for rewarding embarrassing refereeing...[Shaw's] the worst kind of ref, one who doesn't understand that respect is won by communicating with coaches and players, not T'ing them up at the earliest possible moment.

Grant us more Love
Grant Wahl's terrific article on bad fan behavior was accompanied by a Where's-Waldo-like photo of Oregon students giving Kevin Love the finger. A father noticed his son was in one of the photos and was not happy:

"I was shocked to see, in a photo of the Oregon student section, my son partaking in the harassment of UCLA's Kevin Love. When he came home the following weekend, his car was taken away and he headed back to school on a bus. I am embarrassed and wish to apologize to Kevin and his family." -- Armando Navarro, Clackamas, Ore.

On a positive note, Mr. Navarro should be grateful that his child's highly public mistake hardly registers on a scale of 1 to appearing in a Girls Gone Wild video...or getting paid to sleep with a governor...or both. (Thank you, And Whammy Sports Blog)

--Marc Isenberg

Let the Madness begin

It's NCAA Tourny time. Three great weeks of college basketball players providing one many shining moments. There is much to to get excited about. But first, let's not forget that there are more than few "self anointed incorrigible cynics" who continue to focus on the negative aspects of college sports. Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel writes about the hypocrisy. It's March Madness, so you know we're going to hear from some of the stark, raving mad members of the Drake Group. Here's Drakie Allen Sack wondering whether college athletes should be paid. And I still remember my friend wasting my time last year one trying to convince me that amateurism is a myth.

I wish people would stop complaining about how unfair the system is for college athletes and focus on the wonderful moments of March Madness. Forget what the mainstream media says. Stephen Colbert, surely a more credible journalist, once said: "The NCAA basketball tournament has everything I like: corporate sponsorship, unpaid labor and blind partisan allegiance." Amen!

Here are my Tournament predictions:

Final Four
UNC
Kansas
Michigan St.
UCLA

And UCLA beating UNC in the Championship game. And Dick Vitale will somehow convince Michael Beasley, OJ Mayo and Kevin Love to all return for their Sophomore seasons. Anyone want to bet that I am wrong?

Worker fraud feature on March Madness on Demand

College hoop fanatics slash lazy employees can rejoice: The "Boss Button," a feature on CBS Sportsline's March Madness on Demand that helps employees conceal the fact that they are not doing their jobs, is back by popular demand.

Originally posted March 18, 2007

For years employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas has put out estimates that March Madness costs businesses ridiculous money in lost productivity. The 2007 estimate is $1.2 billion.

Recognizing that not every college-basketball obsessed fan is equipped with a TV in their office, CBS created NCAA March Madness on Demand.

Problems: You want to watch college hoops, not work. CBS needs ratings. You don't want to get fired. Solution: CBS, with the NCAA's blessing plausible deniability, devised the "Boss Button."

Here's how it works: You hear footsteps...you hit the "Boss Button" and the Madness stops. And a nifty-looking, although phony, spreadsheet instantly appears. Whew, that was a close call!

CBS touts the worker fraud feature in a recent press release:

“Boss Button” — Back by popular demand, the “Boss Button” is the one feature every MMOD user in the workplace should know about. One click of the “Boss Button” and the live video action on the screen will be replaced by a silent readymade spread sheet!

What will they think of next? The "proctor button" for student athletes not interested in studying?

NCAA passes the Erin Rule?

In this week's Sports Illustrated, Dan Patrick has a great exchange with Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl:

Patrick: [You] can't be putting your hands on Erin Andrews at halftime, coach.
Pearl: Erin is a terrific sideline reporter....I actually called her and texted her back, and I apologized if in any way that was unprofessional.
Patrick: Is texting her an NCAA violation?
Pearl: No, she's not a prospect.
Patrick: Oh, yes, she is.
Pearl: She's way out of my league when it comes to that category.

As in Erin's good looks matched up against Pearl's? Or as in he's old enough to be Erin's father?

The interview ends on a fascinating note:

Patrick: When was the last time you accidentally broke an NCAA rule?
Pearl: Probably sometime in this conversation.

This answer can be parsed two ways. One, Bruce Pearl is using simple logic: Time, say, 10 minutes has elapsed during this interview. Ergo, Pearl must have broken some rule in the War and Peace version of the NCAA Manual. Or, two, Pearl is referring to the Erin Andrews Rule, a little known bylaw recently passed by the NCAA that says that no coach will have impure thoughts about Erin and/or contemplate whether he is or isn't in her "category." Come on coach, show some institutional control!

I love Coach Pearl. Mostly because he doesn't take himself too seriously. And because when he was an Iowa assistant coach in the late 1980s, Pearl provided a glimpse into the sometimes seedy world of recruiting, which at the time was considered career suicide. (A great google find: the purported memo sent by Pearl to the NCAA alleging recruiting improprieties by Illinois.)

While on the subject of this week's SI, Grant Wahl writes a fantastic piece on Tyler Hansbrough, SI's college basketball player of the year. (Great summary of Psycho-T's game by Roy Williams: "It's like sumo wrestling followed by George Gervin's finger roll.") Last week, Grant wrote on what's wrong with college basketball. Answer: Abusive fans. Tyler Hansbrough represents everything that is right.

Muckrakers in college sports

Notice lately how many NCAA investigations are either the result of investigative journalists working in concert with civil lawsuits (real or threatened)? I am all for NCAA cheaters getting punished, but let's be clear: these are not all the cheaters in the NCAA-cheating universe...just the ones who irritate someone enough to talk to the media and/or threaten or file lawsuit.

Lately, there's been an increase in armchair NCAA investigators. Yahoo! Sports seemingly has become a third arm of NCAA enforcement, especially with its extensive coverage of Reggie Bush. Now Yahoo! examines the sleazier side of college coaches...using their oratory skills to help high schools with fundraisers.

Yahoo! lays down the law:

"The practice of coaches speaking at high school events has been going on for decades. But it's fundraising in association with those events that has prompted scrutiny. And should the NCAA find Notre Dame and Weis to be in violation of its rules, coaches across the nation could expect similar sanctions."

Steve Morgan, who once worked for the NCAA and now represents schools accused of NCAA wrongdoing, said:

"I think the issue is that if you didn't have regulations in this area, you'd have the possibility that coaches would exploit the opportunity to curry favor with certain high schools, and their hope would be to get a leg up in recruiting in that high school."

Leveling the playing field is an impossible thing to legislate. Big recruiting budgets and celebrity coaches will always enjoy a "leg up in recruiting." What makes the system basically fair is that schools all offer exactly the same number of scholarships and amount of playing time.

While the media and fans foster a culture of distrust, coaches also bear responsibility.

Consider this, courtesy of sportswriter Ray Melick:

"Alabama coach Nick Saban says he has 35 documented cases of secondary violations by other coaches that he has not reported, although he has used them as a 'What about them?' defense when confronted by compliance people questioning Saban about allegations made against him."

So this is how The Nasty Game is played? Coaches acting like vigilantes by taking compliance matters into their own hands in order to protect their own butts down the line. This "observe, document, but don't report" system is far different from the Honor Code, the bedrock of every university that holds integrity and fair play central to its mission.

In the end, all this creates a pretty bleak public view that supports former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian thesis that,  "In major college basketball, nine out of 10 teams break the rules. The other one is in last place."

--Marc Isenberg