It’s ridiculous to exclude Webber for that reason, and really makes me question whether he can be even remotely objective with the rest of his rankings. As you say, many other elite recruits have no doubt received Improper benefits. It’s long been rumored Magic Johnson got paid to attend MSU, for example. And we know Ed Martin was connected to Mateen Cleaves. To me, this is like ranking the all time great baseball players and leaving off Ty Cobb because he was a racist prick or Pete Rose or Shoeless Joe Jackson because they bet on baseball. It’s a list about talent and achievement, nothing more.
And if we’re just talking high school achievement - which we are - Joubert should be a top 5 guy in Class A. And I don’t know how Steve Smith as a high school prospect ranks ahead of Jalen Rose. Come on.