Harrick Isn’t Selling Ucla Out Just Yet, Only Leasing
Would you buy a used car from this man?
That is the question UCLA officials must ask themselves today in the wake of a paper trail that begins with basketball coach Jim Harrick and could end in an NCAA dungeon.
Would you buy a used car from this man?
Lisa Hodoh, sister of prized UCLA recruit Baron Davis, apparently did.
Her documented purchase of a car owned by Harrick - despite conflicting stories by herself and UCLA athletic director Peter Dalis - is in direct violation of NCAA rules.
Senseless, arrogant rules. Rules, nonetheless.
Rules that Harrick apparently senselessly and arrogantly flaunted by exposing himself to a situation in which a recruit was driving a car with Harrick’s “vanity” license plates.
Crooks in “Home Alone” movies aren’t this dumb.
RN2ZHLS read the plates on the 1991 Chevy Blazer.
As in, “Run to the Hills,” a slogan perhaps befitting Harrick’s West Virginia background.
Would you buy a used car from this man?
If Lisa Hodoh answered that question yes, as motor vehicle records indicate, then UCLA officials must answer it no.
And it’s time for all to take a long look at Jim Harrick.
Is the school headed for NCAA probation that could cost the university - and eventually taxpayers? - hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is it headed for a permanent stain on a sparkling reputation built by men who had enough heart to play by the rules.
Senseless, arrogant rules. Rules, nonetheless.
The Bruins haven’t always won, but they’ve almost always displayed class, courage and character.
Until now?
With Dalis’ refusal to allow Harrick to show up at Monday night’s interview session with Los Angeles Times reporters who had conducted the investigation, Harrick’s side of the story is unknown.
Dalis issued what he claimed was Harrick’s side of the story. Which cannot possibly be Harrick’s side of the story.
Because in it, Harrick’s son Glenn is cast as a deceitful fool who would lease a car from his father, show up at a UCLA office where he does not work, walk around advertising the car for sale, and then sell it to an employee there who happened to be the sister of the top high school senior point guard in the United States.
A woman whose brother just happened to give his verbal commitment to play next season for UCLA.
Two days before they closed the deal on the car.
Under this scenario, not only did Glenn Harrick break NCAA rules, he also sold a leased car that did not belong to him. And this could break a whole mess of other rules, called laws. Jim Harrick is a decent guy, and would not exploit one of his children to cover for him.
Baron Davis was going to cement Harrick’s reputation. The recruiting class had been built around the kid, that rare Isiah Thomas-type guard who can control the game.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke told somebody Davis was the best senior at that position in 25 years. The decision came down to heavyweights UCLA, Duke, Kansas and Michigan.
The word was that UCLA was going to win because one of Davis’ high school teammates was Cash Warren, son of former Bruin Mike Warren, a kid who has spent months whispering to his buddy about tradition.
Bet they never once talked about a used Chevy Blazer.
That is the irony here, that a kid who probably would have come to UCLA for nothing now might lose a year of eligibility for a program that could be on probation … because he was tired of getting rides from south-central Los Angeles to Santa Monica?
And because somebody at UCLA felt that it was worth breaking the rules to make him happy?
The UCLA basketball program is bigger than Jim Harrick, bigger than Peter Dalis, bigger than Warren and Wilkes and Walton, bigger than even the Big Fella himself.
Far too big to allow itself to be run down by a reckless head coach in a used Blazer.