NCAA Says Laettner Diary OK

Duke basketball center Christian Laettner violated no rules by keeping a diary for a magazine during his senior season, the NCAA said Friday.

“Christian Laettner did not violate any NCAA rules by keeping a diary--and that’s all he did,” spokesman Jim Marchiony said Friday. “There was neither any written nor oral agreement between Laettner and GQ (magazine) that would be a violation of NCAA rules.”

The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal had reported Thursday that GQ managing editor David Granger and former managing editor Eliot Kaplan said Laettner signed a contract with the magazine before his senior season, agreeing to payment if the story was published.

Laettner denied that, saying he had agreed to keep the diary to write an article sometime after the season for GQ.

Chris Kennedy, in charge of Duke’s NCAA compliance, told the Charlotte Observer: “I don’t know what else could have been done. I’m convinced there was not a violation.”

Kennedy was referring to acknowledgment by NCAA officials that they were contacted about the agreement before the season.

“The thing that is so amazing is that everybody knew about (his agreement with the magazine),” Laettner told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I never tried to hide it. It’s been so long. For all this to happen now is just totally unbelievable.”