I have to admit, the Pete Thamel story on Eric Bledsoe knocked me for a loop and had me scrambling most of a Memorial Day weekend to get to the root of the story.
The TMZ story on player agents was a bit of a shock to wake up to on a July 4th weekend, but by noon I had figured out it was pretty much nothing to worry about.
Someone texted me the details of the following story at work today and I seriously had to laugh. In case you can’t make out the print, the following is a story by Michael O’Brien of the Chicago Sun Times where he makes a couple of very disturbing assertions.
1) That there are rumors that Anthony Davis Jr’s college commitment has been the source of some kind of bidding system and is for sale.
2) That Kentucky had paid $200,000 to secure the said commitment.
Of course, it’s all hogwash and quite possibly one of the most blatant instances of irresponsible journalism I have seen in quits some time. Now, take a good look at the following article and I will join you at the bottom of the story.
Get good look at it? Hope so, because almost as quickly as it was put up, it was removed and the inference to the payments was deleted and O’Briens story stands like this now.
It;s easy to get to the root of this outright lie. Anthony Davis gave what most people think was a pity visit to the DePaul Blue Demons and shortly afterward, it was announced that Davis had made his decision. And about the same time came the unconfirmed reports that Davis had chosen Kentucky.
DePaul of course is right near the Chicago city limits, so it’s easy to see how a scorned Chicago homer took his frustration out on the Goliath’s known as Kentucky and fired a pebble from his slingshot in favor of the hometown Blue Demons. You would expect such blatant homerism from a school newspaper or even TMZ (where the person accused of writing the UK story is rumored to be a UL fan), but the oldest paper in one of America’s biggest cities?
Granted, it is the Chicago Sun Times, which for years has the reputation of being slightly more credible than the the Weekly World News. But still, somewhere in the offices of Chicago’s oldest continuous newspaper (since 1844) someone has to be shaking their head at the outright lies their publication is printing.
And the thing is …. it’s not even a good lie. Everyone knows that as scrutinized the Kentucky basketball program is (whether right or wrong), there is no chance in hell Kentucky is going to be involved outright for blatantly paying for a player. And just one other small point …. John Calipari does not have to pay for players. In case you have not noticed, Calipari will have the number one recruiting class three years in a row in 2011 and any recruit that is anyone is going to make their way to Lexington. John Calipari has a top 25 talent that has been lobbying for months (Tony Wroten) to even get Calipari to look his way.
But what do you really expect from the Calendar and Arts Editor that occasionally writes about high school basketball? If he wanted hits …. he got them. And to be honest, I am amazed he still has a job right now.
The Big Blue Nation is rightfully pissed and I have seen fans of other schools that usually hate on Kentucky (Kansas, North Carolina) step up on message boards and cry B.S over this story. The real question that has to be asked is how such a blatant lie get in print? It’s obvious O’Brien tried to slide it by. How could you have sources on a story nailing Calipari on paying players and NOT lead with it?
When you know what you are printing is utter crap and you want to slide it in the story before you know it will have to be retracted. It’s pure cowardliness.
And I am happy to say that Kentucky is fighting back against this ridiculousness and their legal representation sent a very strongly worded letter to Mr. O’Brien in which the University and perhaps coaching staff is threatening to sue O’Brien for his “malicious and willful actions”.
Once again, I just can’t understand the mind that sets out to deliberately attempt to injure the reputation of a high school senior. It boggles the mind. But if your intent this morning was to get hits, Mr. O’Brien, you got them. And the unparalleled wrath of the Big Blue Nation. I’m sure that the e-mail account of Michael O’Brien is long full by now, but if you are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, here is a list of contact information for the Editors at the Chicago Sun Times.
Make your voices heard.
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