Basketball: Caught up in a cash uproar

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Feb 26, 2008

A DISTRAUGHT Steven Leven was forced to quit Auburn University in Alabama after becoming embroiled in an illegal payments scandal and plunged headlong into lasting depression.

He had to spend a year out of playing basketball and kicked his heels at the University of Texas, burying himself in daily work-outs helped by a sympathetic coach.

"I loved Auburn and picked it ahead of 30 or 40 other scholarship offers," he told me. "They were the business. There was no pro sport in Alabama and if you played for one of the two colleges you were a star.

"Basketball is a very glamorous sport in America and I was regularly stopped in the street for my autograph or a photo. Even at that level, never mind the NBA. It was an education.

"However, Auburn were investigated for paying players and that changed everything. Five of us were involved and consequently my agent wanted me out of there, so I was forced to leave even though I didn't want to go.

"I was cleared, mainly because I got out, but the school was found guilty and put on sanctions.

"I went off to the University of Texas but I couldn't play for a year because I had switched teams in the middle of a season. I was plunged into depression at leaving Auburn because I loved it so much.

"The trouble was I didn't talk to anyone about it, just bottled things up. I didn't know what to say. Only a couple of close friends knew exactly how I felt.

"I trained every single day but I couldn't play. Coach Barnes was a rock. He worked with me all the way through even though I couldn't play for him. He recognised my talent."

Leven found his way again at Wyoming, depression finally over, and by the summer of 2006 he underwent individual work outs with NBA teams San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Bobcats, Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets and Utah Jazz.

"There was a lot of pressure - you were under a big microscope," he recalled. "I broke the shooting record at San Antonio, netting every one of my 25 shots from the three-point line, which was something."

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COWBOY SHARPSHOOTER: Leven in action nfor Wyoming Cowboys after his move to Auburn turned