Everyone has heard a horror story about the dirty business recruiting in college sports that they kind of believe. It could be something that was publicized in the national media, it could be something they read on a message board or an SB Nation team site, or it could be something that their brother’s college roommate’s brother-in-law told them he heard from someone who overheard a beat reporter mention something at a TGI Friday’s.
But the point is that college recruiting seems like the dirtiest business in the world. Is it actually? Who knows! But there are so many stories out there that never get confirmed but just float around and make everyone skeptical of college recruiting.
One of those stories popped up on June 29 centering around Mohamed Bamba. He surprised some people when he committed to Texas over schools like Duke and Kentucky in May of this year — a 7-foot native of New York who went to high school in Pennsylvania, Bamba is the No. 2 player in the class of 2018, according to his 247Sports Composite rating. When the 2018 NBA Draft rolls around, it would not be a shock to hear his name taken in the Top 5.
Well, this assumes that he’s able to play this season. Bamba’s half-brother is a guy named Ibrahim “Abe” Johnson. In a series of posts on Facebook, including a 22-minute video that you can watch here, Johnson claimed that Bamba only chose to go to Texas due to improper benefits involving his mentor, Greer Love, a Detroit-based financial advisor. Johnson alleged that Love — who was involved in youth sports in Harlem and got to know Bamba’s family when they lived in New York when he was a child — would send gifts and money to Bamba and steer him towards certain schools.
“He’s not going to play this year,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to lie to you. I exposed that kid.”
In the video, Johnson alleges that he did this as a way to get back at Bamba. Johnson, who went to University of Montevallo in Alabama, wanted to follow Bamba to Texas and enroll in graduate courses with the hopes of becoming an NBA agent. Johnson claims that Bamba agreed to the idea at first but eventually went back on his word, partially due to the influence Love had on him. In response, he claims that he reported Bamba to the NCAA and will meet with the organization.
Love told Horns247 that he was indeed involved in Bamba’s recruitment, but he made it a point to make sure he followed all the rules.
“When Mo asked me to guide him and help coordinate the logistics of his recruitment,” Love told 247Sports, “I immediately engaged the former Chief Compliance Officer of two Big 10 / Big 12 schools, who provided frequent consultation on a variety of matters. Doing things the right way has been our top priority since day one. Mo’s got way too much to lose to take any chances on anything even remotely impermissible. With my 9-year, pre-existing relationship on the line with Mo personally, let alone his college eligibility, I took several additional measures to ensure that Mo was fully compliant every step of the way.”
That sounds legitimate enough, as does the statement that Texas gave to Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! Sports, which read “As is usual practice by the NCAA, Mo’s amateur status was previously reviewed and final certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center. The NCAA has not informed us of any pending issues or eligibility concerns at this time regarding Mo. If there are further questions, we certainly will cooperate with the NCAA to the fullest.”
Basically, it doesn’t sound like Love or Texas are worried about the allegations Johnson made. A more trustworthy person would say that’s because there’s nothing there. A more skeptical person would say that’s because they made sure there’s no evidence.
But no matter what, Johnson’s actions were gross. He attempted to take away Bamba’s opportunity to play basketball because of a petty beef.
This has massive ramifications — if the NCAA investigates this, it is going to be this huge black cloud that will hang over what will probably be Bamba’s only year in college. What if it turns up nothing, but having this on his mind negatively impacts his play and tanks his NBA stock? Will he be able to shake this reputation regardless? And if it turns out that something went down and Bamba’s future goes down the tubes to whatever extent, would anyone really believe Bamba was the only recruit who committed to a school under circumstances that were kind of shady?
Recruiting is a weird thing, especially in college hoops, where going to school is viewed as a year-long impediment to an NBA career. But it is also necessary, as alternate paths like playing in the G-League or going overseas for a year aren’t viewed as viable options.
Is this system fair? Of course not. Which is why Johnson’s claims make sense. And why it makes sense that Bamba (or any high-level recruit who feels like they need to go to college if they want to make it to the NBA) would accept impermissible benefits. And why the NCAA would turn its backs to this sort of thing if it’s real, because the assumption is this happens everywhere and enforcing the rules would take forever and make the organization look bad.
Getting rid of the NBA’s age limit and/or making it possible for schools to pay athletes to a defined extent would probably be positive steps towards getting rid of these allegations. But until then, people like Johnson will have the chance to hurt people like Bamba for choosing to play a game that’s dirty. The whole situation is unfair.
