College Basketball

George Hicker, a Sherman Oaks businessman, disputed a Syracuse Post-Standard story that said he had hired former Laker LeRoy Ellis at the time Ellis’ son LeRon decided to transfer from Kentucky to Syracuse, Hicker’s alma mater.

Ellis was hired through an employment agency in November 1988, said Hicker, though he could not go on the payroll of the Hicker Co., Inc., which does business as the Cardinal Co., until passing a state test to get his real estate license. This was completed on July 9, 1989, nine days after LeRon Ellis announced his transfer to Syracuse, Hicker said.

“We gave it a year and it didn’t work out,” Hicker added, saying that LeRoy Ellis no longer is in his employ.

Hicker, a teammate of Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim during the 1960s, said that he has never recruited for his alma mater and that he had employed only one Syracuse player, Stephen Thompson, during summers while Thompson was in school.