The AAU Connection: ‘Everybody Does It’

When Bill Plaschke wrote his column on JaRon Rush [Feb. 2] the most shocking aspect of Plaschke’s article is that a journalist with his standing, writing for the L.A. Times, would show his naivete about college basketball and recruiting for all the world to see.

He asserts that UCLA shouldn’t have recruited Rush because it was obvious he was dirty from his AAU team. Maybe Plaschke should go out and see what’s really happening in the world, specifically the AAU and recruiting world, before he naively pontificates about it.

Anyone who has any kind of knowledge of college basketball recruiting knows this as a given fact: If a program were to decide not to recruit players who might have accepted money from their AAU program, there wouldn’t be one player left to recruit.

TRACY PIERSON

Thousand Oaks

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Leonard Little drives drunk, kills people, and is welcomed back by the NFL and the Rams and wins a Super Bowl ring. Peter Warrick is involved in a conspiracy to steal clothing (a felony) and is suspended two games and wins a national championship ring. John Rocker spouts the worst racial epithets and insults heard by a professional athlete since well, ever, and gets a fine and a four-month suspension.

JaRon Rush, an unpaid college athlete getting no money whatsoever to live on because of the NCAA’s ridiculous rules about working, takes $200 from an agent and receives some benefits from his old AAU coach. Nothing illegal here, mind you, just a kid who made a mistake because he needed a little money to live on.

He tells the truth, owns up to his mistake. His university suspends him and the NCAA slaps a 44-game suspension on him and fines him $6,000? What kind of justice is this?

Sadly, Rush doesn’t have the expert lawyers of the MLB players’ union to appeal this decision.

SAMEER BAKHDA

Northridge

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Whenever there is talk about a Jerome Moiso or Dan Gadzuric turning pro, it gives me hope that I--a 58-year-old asthmatic alumnus--might return to school and replace one of them.

Now you tell me who’s the bigger dreamer.

LEONARD G. KASSELL

Los Angeles