Everything you say is true but nothing about the team’s treatment of Martin was especially egregious (to me), largely because I believe that he had pre-existing relationships w the athletes that were totally independent of Michigan, just like he had relationships w guys at other schools. Michigan was special only in two ways that I can sense: 1) that it was by far the ‘it’ school for Detroit hoopers and so it has more and higher profile recruits than any other school, and 2) there was a convenience for Ed to visit UM that doesn’t exist for any other school. Of course he came around. It’s twenty or thirty minutes away.
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You’re right. For some reason I have decided Gaines and Crawford were Amaker’s first class, but they were indeed Ellerbe’s recruits. Ellerbe was never gonna make it; clearly out of his league.
Nah, Ingerson tried to swim across Lake Merritt, no relation to David, in Oakland CA to evade authorities. Went in one side with clothes on, came out the other with none. I think he got admitted to a psychiatric hospital after that. I don’t think I have heard anything about him since.
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Martin had a ton of access and at BEST you can argue the staff looked the other way. To me the kicker was when Bullock started to get paid by Martin. He wasn’t some poor kid from inner city Detroit. He was from a nice area in Maryland if I recall - and yet he was caught getting paid by Martin. That tipped it over the edge in my head and I didn’t have a problem cleaning house and getting some sort of punishment.
But what I always resented was that Michigan got punished so severely (even if Ellerbe was their own self-inflicted punishment) versus what all of the other schools have gotten over the years. How bad was UNC’s punishment for faking grades and classes? What happened with all of those Kentucky/Duke 5-stars? Or when we got punished for Crawford as compared to Boozer? It just felt like Michigan’s punishment set us back a decade while everyone else was doing their own bad stuff without hardly any punishment.
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I’m hoping that somehow Orlando sneaks into a play-in game. Other than how Poole, Caris, and Hardaway do (and Kyrie being on Dallas lessens my rooting interest), I am not very excited about the NBA playoffs. I could use some new Michigan faces out there.
However, the Magic are 4.5 games out with, maybe?, 7 games to play. So, that’s unlikely.
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Fisher’s program was guilty of NCAA violations, for sure. But it’s pretty safe to say that a lot of the teams we were playing against were as well. NCAA enforcement has always been arbitrary. Martin would have eventually gotten nailed by the feds but whether there would have been an NCAA investigation without that accident is anyone’s guess.
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Let us not forget that some of these punishments were self imposed.
It is true that Martin had relationships with most of the Detroit hoopers before their college choices. He used to buy food, clothes, shoes, lend them money, etc. It is also true that most of the D1 coaches knew that he had the ears of the Detroit kids, so by proxy, if they were good with him, their chances to recruit the kids to their schools, was to talk to the middle man. Safer against raising suspicions for recruiting violations. The problem is that Martin was a larger fish to fry for the FBI. UM’s violations were a by-product, that became worse with Webber’s grand jury issue.
I would LOVE to see Orlando in the playoffs. Don’t see it happening this year though. I am generally not an NBA guy at all but I will sometimes tune into a good playoff game. But I’m not sure the storylines are all that compelling this season. The Mavs are a tire fire lately since that trade (mostly on defense) so that’s not great for Luca or THJ. Interesting Ringer.com article about how it actually probably makes sense for the Mavs to tank the last two weeks, miss the play-in, actually get their draft pick this year instead of losing it, etc.
I don’t think the Mavs need to tank to miss the playoffs, they’re doing an excellent job trying their hardest. For Michigan playoff guys, you’ll have Caris and Poole and that’s mostly it. The Magic won’t make it this year.
It’s not a Michigan story, but I think rooting for OKC (a team getting good off two years of tanking on the back of big time young talent) is pretty fun right now…I think they’ll make the play-in and are dangerous. Shea is all-NBA level.
I can’t wait til we can fire up the ol’ 2023 NBA Playoff Thread. Cavs/Knicks should be a good first round series. And all the Western Conference series should have a storyline worth tuning in for.
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Tim Hardaway Jr. has told Doncic “I pretty much don’t like you” in recent team meetings
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The Mavs will have to trade Doncic.
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Another nice night for Franz (efficient 20 points) and a W for Orlando. They’re trying!
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Source? ???
The beat guy at the athletic
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23/3/4 for TIMMAY, halfway through the 3rd, versus Miami. 0 in 2 minutes for Duncan, on the other side.
There are videos on youtube with Timmy calling him possibly the best player of all time; and some great highlights of them in the two-man game. Doesn’t mean Tim couldn’t dislike him but it certainly surprises me. Especially coming from a long-time pro like him–would expect more circumspection. Interesting.
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It sounds as if a number of his teammates don’t enjoy playing with him, in the article. Tim wasn’t alone, but was the only Michigan grad.
Luka is awful to watch, a miserable player (really good though!)
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The best worst player for sure
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Looks familiar…
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