Nike's reforms should prevent another Rush saga

Sporting News, The, Dec 27, 1999 by Mike DeCourcy

The subtitle of the new book Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth seems a bit much at first, as if some marketing fellow from Warner Books is pleading with you to squeeze loose the requisite $24.95 from your wallet and exchange it for a copy.

The case of the Rush brothers makes it seem the publishers weren't so far out of line.

Sophomore forward JaRon Rush of UCLA and freshman guard Kareem Rush of Missouri were declared ineligible to compete by their universities while inquiries were conducted into whether they received payments threatening their amateur status. The central figure is Myron Piggie Sr., a convicted drag dealer who coached the Kansas City-based CMH 76ers club team while they were in high school. Now, Piggie is reported to be under FBI investigation.

JaRon Rush missed an exhibition game last month, apparently to testify to a Kansas City grand jury about his dealings with Piggie. There are questions about whether he accepted $200 from an agent and whether any money paid to him by Piggie threatened his amateur standing. The NCAA can restore the two players' eligibility, suspend them for their actions or declare them permanently ineligible.

JaRon's status is most in doubt. Without him, UCLA split two games against Top 25 opponents, losing by 16 to Gonzaga and blowing out injury-depleted DePaul. Rush is the sort of playmaking wing who has become the key to success in the college game.

Missouri was to have completed its investigation of Kareem Rush at the close of last week, and it appeared the school had decided to be overly cautious. Missouri sat Kareem after he played 32 minutes and scored 10 in a loss to Saint Louis. He is more of an athletic jump-shooter than his brother, but he still is struggling to find his 3-point touch. The Tigers won their first game without him, beating Iowa with forward Johnnie Parker also on the bench after a two-day suspension for academic reasons.

"Kareem is handling this with a lot of integrity," Missouri coach Quin Snyder says. "I'm proud of him. It's not easy. In Kareem's mind, he never received money to play basketball. It never occurred to him it could be perceived that way."

Writer Dan Wetzel hardly is surprised by this mess. He and co-author Don Yaeger examined Piggie in detail for Sole Influence--Piggie is mentioned on roughly 20 pages--and came away convinced that whatever Piggie did with the Rush brothers was purely in his own interest.

"I think this was inevitable," Wetzel says. "You have a guy who is the AAU coach who is the kind of opportunistic person not looking out for the best interests of the kids. Everything he has ever done, it's obvious he's out for however he can make money for Myron Piggie. This is the prototypical guy they should not have coaching AAU basketball."

The Rushes were a part of a team and a time that represented the nadir of the summer basketball circuit. In 1997, the CMH 76ers were a team in which the players' egos were out of control, the coach recruited players from at least a half-dozen states, and the sponsoring shoe company, Nike, nearly was panicked into becoming a part of the preps-to-pros process that made NBA players and adidas pitchmen out of Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. (Sole Influence quotes Nike chairman Phil Knight as saying in 1996, "We never want another player to go pro out of high school again without Nike being involved.")

The 76ers were among the most promising collections of basketball talent ever assembled in a club setting. Florida forward Mike Miller played some games, along with UConn forward Ajou Deng. Corey Maggette of the Orlando Magic was a regular, as was former Pistons forward Korleone Young. But JaRon Rush was the star, and he was treated as such.

Wetzel reported two years ago JaRon accepted cash, a car and travel from a wealthy Kansas booster, Tom Grant, who was a sponsor of the 76ers and claimed JaRon as a family friend. That this relationship did not endanger Rush's eligibility may be the player's best defense in the Piggie matter. As a Rush family neighbor, Piggie would appear to meet qualifications for the "pre-existing relationship" rule that constricts the NCAA from meddling into money matters.

In the end, all that talent added up to little. The 76ers regularly lost and the publicity became such an embarrassment to their sponsor, the hospital that gave the team its name ordered it removed. Nike eventually got rid of Piggie, too.

"Everybody knew what Myron Piggie was about. Everybody knew," Wetzel says. "But Nike wanted players. And they didn't care who was in charge of them.

"I think Nike has to be accountable for this. There's always going to be Myron Piggies out there. It's who is allowing them to take advantage."

For its part, Nike wisely cut ties to Piggie and instituted background checks and certification programs for the coaches of the club teams it sponsors.

Sneaker companies are an easy target because so much of their market comprises children. Nearly every program they sponsor gets some media criticism, from endorsement contracts with college coaches to sponsorship of dub basketball teams and tournaments to running the elite talent camps during the summer recruiting period.