Kentucky Rumored to be leading for Jaylen Brown
No bueno...Kentucky Sports Radio reporting
Also seems the scout guys have changed attitude to one of concern regarding Jaylen and that Kentucky now leading.
Sounds like there's just 1 bag man -- Cal's guy in Atlanta who texted to confirm that he closed the deal.
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This is incredibly annoying and incredibly rude to Jaylen Brown. From all reports he is incredibly thoughtful, cares about academics, wants to make the best choice for himself and has handled this situation better than 99% any of us would handle being recruited.
But yeah if he chooses the best current basketball team in the country that is pumping out top 10 picks it must be because all he cares about is getting paid.
I make rude, half-joking comments all the time in real life, and usually people just laugh and add their own.
I think it's more, "welcome to the internet, home of people who lack a sense of humor but have an angry, judgemental streak that won't be held up by things like context or being normal.
Are you serious?
Well, first, it wasn't my joke, and I'm pretty sure what was written was a joke that Jaylen Brown had done something in violation of NCAA rules, not a joke that was made in reference to something Brown had actually done, as you imply. I think you're the only one stating as a fact that Brown does, in fact, have "ties to illegal student-athlete activity." Now, if your assertion about Brown does in fact turn out to be true, I'd probably make jokes about it both in real life and on the internet.
Also, I'm certain it wouldn't register to him that someone on a message board joked that if he picks Kentucky, it's because they paid him. Of course, I could be wrong, and something like this could happen:
JB: I'm seriously considering committing to Michigan.
JB's friend: Oh yeah, well you need to check this out then! Some guy with a message board account for a Michigan sports blog with the username Doc Brown wrote on page 2 of a message board thread that if you were going to Kentucky, "$$$$$$$$$ looks like the bagman got to him."
JB: WHAT?!?!?! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT!!! THERE'S NO WAY I'D GO TO A SCHOOL WHERE I'D HAVE TO DEAL WITH HIM AS A FAN!!!! WELL, FUCK MICHIGAN THEN -- LEXINGTON, HERE I COME!!!! Man, I'm so offended, dealing with the southern-styled racism in Kentucky would be one thing, but no way am I going somewhere where they question my integrity. Even worse, that could be someone I'm related to! My uncle who lives in Michigan is a doctor! Thanks for alerting me, friend.
JB's friend: No problem buddy, you know I got your back. You know, you probably want to cut that uncle out of your life and not take any risk it could be him. I mean, how many Dr. Brown's could there be in Michigan?
JB: Good call.
I thought he already cut Duke?
I tried to upvote this but just couldn't bring myself to do anything even indirectly Duke-positive.
the text in isolation is noise, the fact that webb is bearish within a short time frame of this tweet, was reason for bringing it up
Is Webb bearish? I thought he was reasonably high that UM was running with UK pretty even.
Journalism is dead.
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Andre 3000 with the major troll job!
Yeah, I'm going to hold off either way until something more substantive comes out. The area code for the tweet doesn't feel that relevant. I mean, I like in NY and I still have an A2 area code; if I texted thatI heard from "people very close to Beilein" that he has a verbal commit from Brown, would that carry more weight because I haven't switched to the 212?
Anyway, it's going to be a week or two before this gets settled, and in the interim LOTS of people who need to generate copy are going to be floating out this type of barely-research news to "keep the discussion going".
not surprising...but disappointing nonetheless
not surprising...but disappointing nonetheless
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To each his own, but for me, I hate the NCAA way more than Kentucky. The NCAA has set up this system that they refuse to meaningfully enforce because of incompetence and embarrassment. Schools are forced to choose between being honest or being elite.
To some degree all schools are bending what are supposed to be the rules, but the schools who at least try not to bend the rules - as opposed to trying not to get caught - are at a severe disadvantage. It's very, very hard to be elite year-in and year-out without paying the players.
Also note that this is not a knock on Jaylen Brown, or even UK. My problem is with the NCAA setting up a system where it's wrongbadevil for a player to get paid.
But wait a minute, aren't they a Nike school?
An anonymous text from the same area code? This isn't even rumor-level. It's wishful thinking from the morning Zoo Crew or whatever they call themselves.
We should feel pessimistic not because of this but because Kentucky should pretty much always be presumed to lead for these kinds of guys. Then if we land one, be happy.
Any time a kid is considering Kentucky/Duke/Kansas I just write them off by default until I actually see them don the M cap and say they've committed to Michigan. Nothing to see here.
NCAA needs to set a 2 year min stay for players if they want to play college ball... The Kentucky pro turnstyle pits kids who probably spend 10x less time meeting their other academic/collegiate requirements than other players on other teams since they all know they're going pro after year 1 anyway. It is just a total joke.
Brown has been tight lipped on the entire situation.
Was this on the radio today or posted on Scout? If true, then my expectation goes to zero. Most of my optimism was based on Webb: he's been saying M is in it for the longest, well before any of the recent stuff; he kew the announcement was coming next week; he posted an article on the kid. All of that added up to as much of a good vibe as you can get w/out a gut feeling. If he's reversed that hard, I'd bet Michigan is the next team eliminated. Probably today or tomorrow.
He must have received news after doing his show, because he didn't express any pessimism on the air. And yeah, if Sam is down on Michigan's chances, then things are bad.
Wouldn't be surprised if the reporter bought a Tracfone or some prepaid thing and sent himself the "anonymous" text.
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LA LA LA LA LA
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Who knows........but I do think that the longer he stays un-committed the better chance for Kentucky and others to sleaze their way in.
if sleaze was what Jaylen wanted, we presumably would never have been on his list!
Let's give Jaylen the respect he deserves. In this case, even if he picks UK, I won't believe it was because he got $$ or doesn't really care about education. We will just look like bitter ex-girlfriends.
One can choose to see the chain of events this way.
1. Bacari deletes his tweet from yesterday
2. Bacari unfollows Jaylen on Twitter.
3. This anonymous text message.
4. Webb loses confidence.
Sounds terrible right? But try putting my tin foil cap on..
1. Too much was leaking out regarding Brown to Michigan.
2. Jaylen asked one of his friends to text a Kentucky media outlet that he's picking UK.
3. Jaylen asks the coaches (Bacari) to tone it down a bit, your being too obvious.
4. Since Webbs contact is someone in Jaylens family, Jaylen asks his uncle to tone it down a bit to the local media. His uncle takes one for his nephew and throws Webb off the scent trail.
My version is better, right?
Sorry to throw cold water on your theory, but why would Jaylen Brown do any of that? He's a high school kid, not Machiavelli.
I don't think it has to be nearly as Machiavellian as suggested. What if Jaylen simply silently committed and told Bacari to keep it on the down low, that he wanted it to be a big shock when he annouced. Bacari tells Williams, hey I don't think we can take you, and then deletes twitter to throw people off. Sam Webb might just have no idea what's going on. I really don't think that's an implausible scenario, or even all that unlikely, frankly.