Sunday, February 27, 2000
Caring coach made difference with Johnson
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Max Good, the basketball coach at Maine Central Institute, was on the phone to Curtis Malone. He was blunt. “DerMarr owes the school $7,500,” was the gist of Good's remarks, “or he can't stay.”
Curtis Malone, godfather and summer league coach to DerMarr Johnson, agreed to pay the bill. Because of Malone, Johnson would finish at Maine Central, the fashionable prep school noted for turning out accomplished basketball players. Johnson would get his diploma and accept a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Cincinnati.
Without Maine Central, Johnson would be running around the CBA now, or some other bus league. Maybe he'd be on the street. Instead, he's at UC, with a potentially lucrative future.
Is this a bad thing?
I don't know what to do about summer league coaches who see high school players as investments. I don't know what to say to people who suggest summer coaches are bagmen for agents seeking to lock up star players before they're old enough to vote. Coaches tell me this happens.
And I really don't know what to do with people like Barry Henthorn. He's the Seattle businessman, de facto guardian and friend to Michigan freshman Jamal Crawford. Henthorn gave Crawford a Mercedes, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Chevy Blazer, while Crawford was in high school.
I have no cure for that except to say: Where do I sign up for friends like that?
Most motivated to help
The NCAA would like to reel in the undesirable summer coaches and the bagmen. It's a great idea. Also, impossible. As UC Athletic Director Bob Goin said, “I think I've identified the problem. I don't have a solution.”
How do you tell the good from the bad? Did you do it for love, or did you do it for money? One man's virtue is another man's vice. “I have a hard time interpreting where the motivation is,” said Goin.
I've seen too many caring benefactors to believe what's going on needs to be stopped. Without an AAU coach named J.O. Stright, Danny Fortson likely doesn't emerge from Altoona, Pa., to star at UC and play in the NBA. Without Nicole Brown and others, Lenny Brown can't afford to attend Maine Central and qualify to play at Xavier, where he earned his degree.
Did Nicole Brown (no relation) do it for the money? Lenny Brown is making all of $40,000 now, playing for the Cincinnati Stuff. Next question.
Are there other answers?
You could try to restore some of the power to high school coaches. But weren't we questioning their influence just a few years ago? You'd just be shifting the blame from the street to the gym.
You could ban college coaches from watching the summer leagues. But coaches are allowed to watch only a few weeks in July. My liberal arts education tells me summer lasts a bit longer than that.
You could eliminate early signings. Incoming juniors in high school would not be treated like royalty the way they are now. They'd have to wait a year to be treated like royalty. Yes, that would make a big difference.
Maybe what you do is nothing, realizing there are more kids looking for a hand up than a hand out, and more coaches looking to help than to profit. Be hopeful instead of cynical.
Malone took in DerMarr Johnson when Johnson was a 6-foot-4 ninth-grader who didn't play basketball. Johnson was so thin, when he turned sideways, you couldn't see him. Maybe Malone saw basketball stardom there. Maybe he saw a kid who needed help.
Maybe he saw both. If he did, where's the crime?
What's going on can be ugly. Bad summer coaches, fortified with shoe-company money, shop their 16-year-old players in tournaments coast to coast. Kids' heads are fattened with flattery and nonsense.
But for every Jamal Crawford, there is a Danny Fortson and a Lenny Brown. And a DerMarr Johnson. Johnson was suspended for last Wednesday night's game because Malone helped him financially to finish at Maine Central. Talk about assuming the worst.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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