Letters: How will USC fight on?

Congratulations to the NCAA for severely punishing the Trojans. Now the multimillion-dollar industry of college athletics can once again become pure, contested by all those big-time BCS and Sweet 16 programs whose players receive no improper inducements, benefits, preferential treatment, grading favors, pocket change or any consideration whatsoever besides a “free” education from the universities for whom they earn hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yeah, right. The real corruption in the system is not Reggie and O.J. working the free market to their advantage (like any good student at SC’s business school learns), but the NCAA trying to uphold unrealistic ideals that will inevitably get abused by the inexorable influence of economic incentives on amateur sport.

Brad Kearns

Auburn, Calif.

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At first glance I thought the sanctions against USC were too severe, but after reading the response from Mike Garrett (Mr. Personality), Coach Carroll (“I know nothing”) and Reggie Bush (“I will continue to cooperate”), I do not think the penalties were excessive at all.

John O. Atkinson Sr.

Long Beach

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I find it troubling that the NCAA, which professes to support student-athletes, is so quick to penalize student-athletes and potential recruits who had nothing to do with any of the infractions USC is accused of committing.

Instead of banning a school and these athletes from a bowl game, why doesn’t the NCAA allow the school to participate in the game and have them forfeit any and all revenue they would have earned?

Frank Tierheimer

Cerritos

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It didn’t take a brain surgeon (apologies to the late Jim Healy) to see that something illegal was going on during the Pete Carroll years at USC.

Carroll was an NFL reject when he came to USC. He turned his practices and the sidelines into sideshows where everyone and his brother could schmooze with the athletes. Now the powers that be are saying that they had no control over who was wooing the athletes with money and perks? Give me a break. Agents and power brokers were welcome to attend any and all practices. Did Uncle Petey think they were there just to have a good time?

USC fans will now complain about the haters and how other schools are just as bad. I think this is called sour grapes. Mike Garrett needs to come out of his self-imposed exile and admit the facts. Take the punishment as a man and own up.

Chris Pisano

Rancho Palos Verdes

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The NCAA, the brain trust that is busy creating conferences involving 20 states, is harnessing this same mentality to penalize USC.

The NCAA is using reported misdeeds by a couple of players to determine whether 30 new student-athletes can attend USC. Further, current juniors and seniors have no chance to play in a bowl game.

Maybe it will all seem more equitable while I’m watching USC compete in the Pac-25 schedule.

John Fraser

Camarillo

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The NCAA has now spoken, and has severely sanctioned USC’s athletic program. Two of the men primarily responsible for this debacle have gone on to greener pastures (just ahead of the posse, it must be noted), and now it’s time for Athletic Director Mike Garrett to assume full responsibility. Mike, if you are the stand-up guy you’ve always said you are, you will be a man and resign. Only then can USC move on, and work its way back to the ranks of respectable college institutions.

Jack Wolf

Westwood

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So Uncle Pete’s No. 1 rule was always protect the team; we just didn’t know he was referring to Team Pete.

Here’s hoping Pete Carroll remembers to (Rule No. 2) be early and (No. 3) not whine ... after he goes 0-16 in Seattle. Hey, I can dream.

Jack Von Bulow

Temple City

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The NCAA acronym must be the Latin word for hypocrisy. While meting out Draconian punishment to USC, the NCAA undoubtedly will continue to cash checks from the networks for the television rights to USC games. If I were Lane Kiffin, I would insist that all television cameras be banned from the Coliseum until the bowl ban has lapsed.

Mark S. Roth

Los Angeles

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Is the new USC president going to have to exact his own “Bush Push” to really clean house in an otherwise tainted athletic department ?

Johnathan Colin

Redondo Beach

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Former USC quarterback Aaron Corp has the last laugh now. He has two seasons to compete for a national championship at Richmond — an opportunity not available to his former Trojans teammates.

Barry P. Resnick

Orange

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Thanks, Reggie Bush. You were deceptive on the field but most of us knew when you started dishing out the hush money that our program was doomed due to your off-the-field deceptions.

Reggie, you shamed your university, your fans and most of all yourself. We will fight on. You, of course, will move on.

Ron Roberts

Encino

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As a longtime UCLA supporter, I find myself conflicted over the ruling against USC. I don’t know if I should pop the champagne or dance a jig.

Jayson Romero

Highland

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Bill Plaschke, please stop telling USC fans how we should feel.

Torrie Rosenzweig

Los Angeles

The Wizard

It is really a shame that the legacy of the great John Wooden may be tarnished to some degree by the facts related in your piece about Sam Gilbert. Nevertheless, I must grudgingly applaud your journalistic integrity in pointing out the “dark side.” I am sure that Coach himself would be the first to admit that he, like all of us, did not lead a perfect life.

I suppose the critical question is what did he know and when did he know it? Was Coach Wooden really willfully blind to any specific wrongdoing involving Sam Gilbert or was it mere inadvertence? We may never know for certain. Still, anyone would be blessed to live as full and productive a life as the Coach. To touch the life of even one young person the way he positively influenced so many would be a grand accomplishment.

Dan Lazaroff

Los Angeles

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John Wooden passes on Friday, and four days later, you have to write an article on “The Dark Days”?

Are you out of your mind? Does The Times have any respect for Coach Wooden or UCLA?

Gary Grayson

Ventura

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How appropriate that a team that played together, had solid fundamentals, won with class but was dominant against the opposition would win the NCAA softball championship wearing the initials JW on their armbands!

Vincent Martinez

Arcadia

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I don’t have a million dollars, but if I did, I’d bet that both Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga and umpire Jim Joyce have a copy of the Pyramid of Success in their lockers. Coach Wooden is smiling down on both of them.

Tina Bothamley

Rancho Palos Verdes

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From John Wooden to John Calipari, and you wonder why college basketball has all the problems it does.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

All tied up

After four games of the 2010 NBA Finals, one firm conclusion can be reached:

These teams stink. They are awful. Dreadful.

If a time machine existed that could transport the 1984, 1985, or 1987 versions of the Lakers and Celtics to 2010, the modern teams wouldn’t come within 25 points.

Dave Perkin

Redondo Beach

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Poise. Confidence. Hard work. Integrity. Enthusiasm. Team spirit. After another clutch performance in Game 3 of the Finals, it became clear to me. Derek Fisher is John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” given human form.

Bill Geyer

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to be like Derek Fisher and he will eat opponents for a lifetime.

Eugene Sison

San Dimas

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Ouch, I just pulled a hamstring jumping on the Derek Fisher bandwagon after game 3.

Richard Adams

Long Beach

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Has anyone else noticed that the Lakers have stopped playing defense in the fourth quarter? In the Finals, they have lost every fourth quarter except for Game 3, which they won by one point thanks to D-Fish’s heroics.

Champs should be locking down and closing out the final 12 minutes, not slacking off, taking bad shots, running the clock down to desperation heaves, then failing to protect the paint or grab boards on the defensive end. That’s just lack of effort.

Get your heads straight, Lakers; games are 48 minutes, not 36.

Scott Keister

Fullerton

Finding the net

Although T.J. Simers, Bill Plaschke, and Bill Dwyre are the “star” writers in The Times sports pages, equal kudos should go to hockey writer Helene Elliot. Her stories of the Stanley Cup playoffs were a marvelous combination of reportage and opinion. Her knowledge of the game is unsurpassed, and her coverage of the playoffs has turned me into a hockey fan.

Joel Rapp

Los Angeles

Blue blood

It looks like we know why the Dodgers raised their parking prices a few years back — to pay for the voodoo doctor.

Mark Gagne

San Diego

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The Dodgers are dead. No, not this year, but within a few seasons. Since 2008, the McCourts have spent less on the annual draft than every other team in baseball. And on Monday they selected a player considered “the most unsignable player in the draft” because he’s already committed to play QB at LSU. They’ve also essentially ceased signing top-flight foreign players, and last season’s pathetic free-agent class was headed by chronic head case Vicente Padilla.

The worst news for Dodger fans will come in a couple of years when Kemp, Ethier, Broxton and company become free agents and bid adieu to LA. It’s apparent the McCourt’s are out of money or they simply no longer care about putting a winner on the field. Either way, they’re killing a once-great organization.

Jeff Green

Long Beach

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I note that the Astros drafted Delino DeShields Jr. Someone should call Fred Claire. I hear Pedro Martinez has a son with a great fastball. Maybe they can work something out.

Ken McIntyre

Torrance 90502

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