Funny quote in a serious story

I felt bad laughing at anything in Tom Friend's lovely and sad story about Duke's Nolan Smith (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/print?page=nolan), son of the late NBA player Derek Smith, but Juwan Howard made me snort.

As Friend writes, Howard and other former teammates of Derek's took it upon themselves to help raise Nolan after his father's sudden death. Today, Howard says he'll still do anything the grown-up Nolan needs. Or, specifically:

"If he needs anything -- I don't care if it's an NCAA violation -- he's got it from me."

Couldn't JUWAN HOWARD, of all people, have found a way to express this admirable sentiment without mentioning NCAA violations?

 

Probably would have been a real good idea to leave out that parenthetical clause.

But Juwan and the rest of the Fabs never seemed to be very worried about NCAA violations. : :

 

Hey now. Juwon was clean.

If we're going to hold him accountable for Chris Webber taking money under the assumption he knew about it then we should hold all the U of M beat writers accountable because they probably knew about it too.

Mi(t)ch (igan) Albom , I'm looking in your direction. Don't tell me you didn't know about this, you wrote a damn book about the team.

 

Not for nothin', but they would really have to go out of their way for an NCAA violation, given the longtime relationship.

 

Well, Chris Webber told him he barely had enough money to buy a fish sandwich. :

And when Mitch, the relentless investigative bulldog, asked CWebb, "Who's this Ed Martin you're always hanging around with," Webber responded, "Awww, what do you want to ask about something like that for?"

So how much more do you need to know? :

 

I didn't mean to imply he wasn't...which I did, clearly. I just meant that a member of a team famously wiped from the record books because of NCAA violations would probably want to not say for no reason at all that he doesn't care if he commits a NCAA violation.

 

I thought it was a pizza. ;D

 

That quote was my No. 1 takeaway from the story. A very brief, insightful way to pack in so much info about the emotions all those guys feel toward the kid. Also, it's a tight and bright example of the lunacy of some NCAA regulations -- could there be actual trouble for Duke if Juwan Howard pays Nolan Smith's rent? Or for a pizza?

Juwan Howard isn't in the NCAA. He doesn't have to care about their rules. He does have to care about looking after the son of his mentor.

 

Actually, I think Howard could help him out because he had a relationship with Nolan before he became a prospective student-athlete.

 

This is a great thought. Changed my perspective on it.

 

One in particular, any way...

 

Everybody on that team took money. You don't think Chris Webber was getting $300,000 (documented) and the other guys (the highly-publicized starters anyway) weren't getting a dime?

Jalen Rose confirmed off-handedly a year or so ago that he was getting goodies from Ed Martin too, "he gave me spending money for mowing his lawn, clothes, shoes if I needed them."

Even in 1992-93, Air Jordans cost $100+ a pair, and clothes weren't cheap either. I would guess Rose discovered he "needed" a new pair about three times a week. And I'm sure Ed Martin's lawn got mowed on about a daily basis.