Report: Love briefly seduced to agency by ex-Duke star
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There was a good story today posted on Yahoo! Sports by writers Josh Peter and Dan Wetzel detailing a Manhattan sports agency’s attempts to recruit former UCLA basketball star Kevin Love and Syracuse’s Donte Green.
The story tells of Ceruzzi Sports’ efforts to lure Love by contributing $300,000 to a non-profit foundation used by Pat Barrett, the director of the high-profile AAU club basketball team, the Southern California All-Stars.
Barrett is a fixture around Southern California’s elite prep basketball scene, sitting courtside at the Fairfax-Mater Dei game Tuesday night in Santa Ana for instance. Last month, USC Coach Tim Floyd discussed Barrett while responding to questions about his decision to hire the father of Trojans player Daniel Hackett: ‘If you are going to be the coach at USC, you better have a relationship with the coach of the Southern California All-Stars, Pat Barrett, who recommended [Hackett]. I hired him and I’m very glad we did.’
Well, Barrett, who failed to return messages left by The Times on Wednesday, isn’t portrayed in such flattering terms in the Yahoo! Sports story. He reportedly promised Ceruzzi Sports that he ‘would provide entree to more than a dozen of his top college-aged prospects, including Love, [USC’s] Taj Gibson and [Arizona’s] Chase Budinger.’Barrett portrayed himself ‘as the gatekeeper to that talent,’ the story said.
He set up a dinner at Mr. Chow, a Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills, between Love and Jay Williams, the national player of the year at Duke in 2002 who won an NCAA title the year before. Williams had his NBA career cut short by a motorcycle accident and ended up as the chief recruiter for Ceruzzi, charged with luring Love as what he called ‘the wow stick.’
Love expressed skepticism: ‘Why would I ever go with a guy who, no offense, ... crashed a motorcycle into a tree. I’m not going to go with a guy that’s reckless.’
Contacted by The Times by telephone Wednesday, Williams, now an ESPN commentator, said he left Ceruzzi Sports because ‘I didn’t want to be in that world, that whole industry is difficult,’ adding he felt ‘used.’
‘I wanted to make a difference and do things the right way,’ Williams said. ‘I wasn’t there to talk to Kevin about the collective bargaining agreement. I wanted to be an agent and I wanted to know the business. We were just talking hoops.’
With the intention to sway Love to Ceruzzi, of course, right? ‘Yeah,’ Williams admitted, ‘that was the hope.’
Williams said the story illustrates, on top of last year’s allegations of money funneling to former USC guard O.J. Mayo, how ripe the potential for abuse is with the non-profit organizations so commonly around elite basketball.
‘At the end of the day, this is about us giving money to a 501(c)(3). Which is legal! Which is crazy!’ Williams said. ‘People are mending relationships with kids at really early ages, with eighth-graders committing to colleges now. It’s crazy. My ego, to a certain extent, can handle wanting to help a 12-year-old get better, but how can I honestly talk to a good 13-year-old about a sports agency?
‘I can’t. But I’m sure those conversations are happening.’
--Lance Pugmire
