Chicago Sun-Times Says There Are Rumors UK Paid For Player

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The Chicago Sun-Times has drawn the ire of folks in theBluegrass State by posting a story in which it mentions rumors that someone associated with Kentucky paid $200,000 to land the commitment of basketballer Anthony Davis, Jr.

KentuckySportsRadio.com grabbed a shot of the original story, which can be found here.

Here’s what the Sun-Times ran with:


“‘There is all kinds of speculation and innuendo out there in the recruiting world regarding his recruitment and if it is going to turn seedy,’ recruiting analyst Joe Henrickson said.  ‘But that’s often the route that this story takes when you see a player emerge like this.  Who knows what’s true and what’s not.’

The rumors/sources that have Davis choosing Kentucky are also alleging that the commitment cost $200,000.  Davis Sr. has flat out denied everything.

‘We haven’t asked anyone for anything and no one has offered us anything,’ Davis Sr said on Thursday at a club basketball event in Merrillville, Ind.”


Writers across the country have questioned the story — as is pointed out by KSR.  Eventually, the paper even retracted the bit about the money allegation. 

Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com says that lawyers representing UK sent a letter to the Sun-Times last night demanding that the paper “withdraw the publication from any source from which it has been published, and issue an immediate statement that you know of no credible evidence indicating that there is any truth to the ‘rumors’ referred to in your article.”


Unfortunately, KSR (as well as every UK fan I’ve heard from today) is heading down the “everyone’s out to get us” path… and they lose me at that point.  If this was some grand attack on ol’ Kentucky, the allegation that someone from the school paid a player would have been the lead in the Sun-Times story, not buried deep in the article.

For fans across the SEC, the immediate reaction will be, of course, “Ah, ha!”  But one should remember a couple of things:

1.  John Calipari has a heckuva reputation in the media and in coaching circles for knowing every loophole there is.

2.  You don’t get that reputation AND avoid being named in NCAA allegations unless you really do know every loophole.

3.  I’m not saying some rogue booster didn’t drop some cash in an Emory shipping container, but there’s no way Calipari or any UK official would ever fork over cash to a player.  Calipari is way too intelligent for that.  Calipari lives in the gray area.  Paying players is pretty darn black and white.

This story might be a fun one for rival fans to kick around on messageboards for a while, but for now, there doesn’t seem to be too much meat on this bone.