John Templon, writing for the Chicago Now blog, thinks that both the Anthony Davis family and UK have put themselves on the spot by threatening to sue the Chicago Sun-Times over the controversial allegations the newspaper published this week. In fact, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Davis family will file a law suit against the Sun-Times next week.
Writes Templon:
First of all, the Davises have put themselves in quite the spot. They now have to come forward with the lawsuit, one that could be potentially damaging to their son’s eligibility if the Sun-Times is able to come forward with the evidence their reports suggest they have. Also, Kentucky has also put itself in quite a spot by saying that it will support the Davises as they fight the lawsuit.
Running with a story once with one source, as O’Brien did with the first article he published and the $200,000 figure, is one thing, but having three sources that independently corroborate reports of requests for payments is a whole different matter. If in the course of discovery for the trial the information comes out, it’s going to give us a whole new view about what really happens during a college recruitment.
His latter argument is why I don’t think UK will ultimately sue the Sun-Times.
This puts UK more on the spot than the Davis family. The Davis family absolutely knows whether the allegations are true. If they aren’t, there is very little risk in bringing the suit. The worst that happens is a coupld of “informants” swear to rumors they can’t prove.
UK may not know the truth. It is possible someone connected with the program did set up a pay off w/o organizational knowledge. So in that regard, UK is counting on the Davis family’s veracity.
I have to think a few other schools don’t want discovery to proceed either, if the Sun Times really has 3 “sources.” That means someone at these other schools Davis spoke with is responsible for the source, and I imagine no school wants to have that guy either.
If this story is false, the Davis family has to sue, and UK should consider it. A newspaper shouldn’t be able to make stuff up like this and reduce “rumor” to news. Otherwise, all the newspaper reporters that like to bust on blogs are really no better any longer. They just have a bigger budget.
it would be nice to see truth every once in a great while…I doubt the veracity of the three sources comments…illogical really that a “booster” (after the Calipari recruiting classes of 2009 and 2010) would resort to ponying up 200K for a recruit that most likely would have committed to UK anyway…and really difficult to imagine that a parent would ask for such an exhorbitant sum for his/her son to play at any college at any sport…all one would need is for one person at one school to blow the whistle and the chances of that student-athlete being able to compete anywhere nationally would be nil…plus with the examples of Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler going overseas instead of matriculating to a university can only leave one to assume that the Sun-Times story is bogus…but that’s the key…assume…I think the Sun-Times has put themselves on the spot with shoddy reporting and now must face the task of either retracting the story, punishing the writer and settling out of court with the Davis family or allowing it to get to a stage in court where they would have to produce their 3 witnesses/sources…really, it could be as glib as a member of one of the competing schools for Davis’ services commenting over the phone that it probably cost UK a “couple of hundred thousand dollars” to land the guy (as in “you’re not really going to print that are you?”)…when it is time for the “sources” to come forward, my guess is that they will state that they weren’t being serious and were misquoted…O’Brien will catch the brunt of the storm…and rightfully so… with that sort of story, with such implications of wrongdoing, it is best to have concrete evidence and solid sources (which I don’t think he has)…ought to be fun to watch play out…but I don’t agree that UK and the Davis family have put themselves on the spot…just another shameful example of “Gonzo” journalism (and in this case, not with the humorous intent that Hunter S. Thompson was famous for)…journalists are at a crossroads and seemingly some have taken the wrong path
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