[Scotty5000Participant]

Article from LATIMES. Weird and shady family, same shady’ness from UCLA too.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-shabazz-muhammad-inc-20130322-m,0,3360747.story

[HobbyOGParticipant]

I don’t think this classifies his family as “shady” basketball is a business at the end of the day. Just like working any other 9-5. Colleges make millions off these kids and all they get is a free scholarship. It meant a lot back then but seeing how bad the American economy a lot of these players who not have the poetional to play professional ball can end up unemployed while the university made tons of money off them. I often have friends who graduated from college with degrees hit the job market recently and have trouble finding work. So I don’t see it as being “shady” use the system as the system uses you..

[ThepessimestParticipant]

I agree with the original poster. I coach at the high school level and the trend here is to hold kids back to get an athletic/maturity edge. But changing a birth certificate is really concerning. There is pushing your son and wanting him to do great things and then there is manipulating documents so that your son can essentially be the same age as many college sophomores and playing against high school kids in high school. Truly unfortunate story…

[ASAP HenryParticipant]

Look, I found this whole article kind of uncomfortable. I know that this is how big time college hoops works a lot of the time, but I’ve always had a problem with parents becoming too invested in their children’s success on the basketball court. Shabazz has been groomed since he was a little boy to become a basketball star. It’s no wonder why he has some selfish tendencies out on the court, ever since he was little his Dad has been telling him that he’s The Man.

Personally, I like Shabazz a lot as a prospect. I think he’s got a very developed offensive game and will develop into a stud NBA defender; however, reading that article made me have a bit of an uneasy feeling in my stomach. He had no interest at all being in college, was only at UCLA to boost his draft stock. I don’t like players like that. Shabazz really seems like he’s only out there for himself to try and increase his stock as much as he can. Even players like Anthony Davis, MKG, Ben Mclemore, Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, etc… all those guys u knew were gonna stay in school for 1 year, yet they still seemed to care about winning in college and advancing in the tournament. I look at a guy like Shabazz and I really don’t think he cares all that much about the success of the UCLA basketball team, he’s only concerned with his personal success. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am

[Pistol Pete. The PelicanParticipant]

The most telling thing to me is that Shabazz is 20 and not 19, now I don’t think that one year makes a difference for him and his development but maybe it’ll help other players be compared against him differently.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

I don’t think it makes much of a difference. 20 is still very young and he already has an NBA body. Most players take 2-3 years to develop an NBA body, maybe even more before they can actually focus on their game.

The fact that Shabazz has the NBA body already means he’s scratched off 2-3 years of work and can replace it with skill training instead. So 1 year doesn’t really have much of an impact because of the fact that he was already so far ahead in that aspect.

[SiggyParticipant]

For Shabazz’ sake, I hope the apple DOES fall far from the tree. His pops sounds like a calculating snake who created children for the sole purpose of living vicariously through them.

[khaled_a_dParticipant]

While 1 year doesn’t make him suddenly a bad player ,but it affects the comparison with other player who is younger
I mean at the start of the season,a lot of people made a big deal of the age difference between him and Ben McLemore who was thought to be born in 1992 back then ,now thinks turned to be the opposite and Ben McLemore is actually few months younger , also a guy like Oladipo is just 6 months older and he is a Junior
Also the situation of lying about your age won’t be easy for the GMs
Honestly I think that situation might through his chances to be a top 5 pick ,he will still be a top 10 pick

[HotSnotParticipant]

Excellent post.

I remember that thread. Bmac had just been put to #1 on the mock and Bazz boosters were ripping Bmac because he was “20” with limited upside. That was eventually cleared up. Now the tables have turned, its the exact opposite situtation and all of a sudden its not a big deal. Unreal… its like Bazz is God or something. He can do no wrong and no amount of convincing will sway these guys.

I tell you why its a big deal, all of Bazz’s best highlights are against highschool competition. He is not the same player we saw in those highlights. We’ve been excusing this due to injury and being out of shape but maybe, just maybe, Bazz isn’t as good as advertised. He obviously had an advantage in highschool against younger less physically mature players, but now that he’s in college, he no longer looks so physically dominant. In addition when you factor in some of the more glaring holes in his all around game,… whats one to think?

[MalcolmxParticipant]

Most of this is his dads fault.We can’t really blame Bazz as much as we would like too.

[MalcolmxParticipant]

He planned this all along which is borderline crazy. There is nothing wrong with pushing your kids to hoop or play any sport but the manner in which he handled it kind of leaves us all scratching our heads.

[alingeParticipant]

His dad sounded like a mild version of Marv Marinovich and that makes me feel very uneasy.

[Forte IVParticipant]

Wouldn’t it be crazy if Shabazz’s entire life he thought he was born in ’93. And now he’s finding out by this report.

[AwardedBallerParticipant]

Bazz’s dad………. I’m speechless.

[Toronto16Participant]

Not gonna lie, he looks like he is 25.

[JoeJoParticipant]

Who does Shabazz’s father think he is? A caribbean baseball trainer? I never heard of an American athlete trying to fake his age because ugh, teams actually do background checks so it’s ridiculous to even try. Maybe it got Shabazz a higher prep profile but being nearly two years older than his high school class didn’t seem to hurt OJ Mayo any.

I wonder if Shabazz even has mild tourette’s syndrome. It’d be extremely dumb to fake that for sympathy and an underdog angle but it doesn’t seem implausible.

[Ghost01Participant]

His stock will continue to drop….no matter if this really matters or not.

[Forte IVParticipant]

His stock wont drop because he’s one year older. He’s still the same player, and 20 isn’t that big of a deal.

[Cavaliers420Participant]

Honestly this is sad, if I am Shabazz I don’t know how to feel after this. Like from a psychological standpoint this is pretty messed up.. kinda reminds me of the Todd Marinovich story..

[Cavaliers420Participant]

Really hope the Cavaliers don’t draft him, honestly I think he may fall out of the top ten because of all this. May sound crazy but I doubt GM’s are going to want a guy who’s more focused on his shoe deals than his game…

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