Lawyer out to ensure eligibility of Muhammad not in jeopardy

Robert Orr, the high-profile attorney representing Bishop Gorman High School basketball standout Shabazz Muhammad, said Thursday he is attempting to work with the NCAA to ensure that Muhammad is eligible to play as a college freshman next season.

Orr, a former associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, said he is “puzzled” why past unofficial recruiting visits taken by Muhammad would generate scrutiny from the NCAA.

CBSSports.com reported Wednesday that the NCAA has contacted schools recruiting Muhammad and made them aware of financial dealings that could jeopardize his amateur status.

“Shabazz is completely innocent. There’s been no accusation that he in any way has done anything wrong,” Orr said. “It’s inconceivable to me that he can be punished and a school that he selects could be punished in any way.”

Sources told CBSSports.com that the NCAA is interested in connections between Muhammad’s family and financial advisers Benjamin Lincoln and Ken Kavanagh.

Lincoln, a North Carolina-based financial planner, told CBSSports.com that he funded at least two of Muhammad’s unofficial visits but believes he did so within NCAA rules.

CBSSports.com documented 13 unofficial visits Muhammad has taken, not including UNLV, since March 2010.

“Certainly their impression is that they were within NCAA rules,” Orr said. “I have often quoted the assistant dean of the Duke law school, 'The problem with the NCAA rule book isn’t its length. It’s that it’s intellectually incomprehensible.’ There’s great confusion and lack of clarity in how the rules are applied.”

Section 13.02.16.2 of the 439-page NCAA Division I Manual reads: “An unofficial visit to a member institution by a prospective student-athlete is a visit made at the prospective student-athlete’s own expense.”

Muhammad’s father, Ron Holmes, told CBSSports.com that he and his son filled out compliance forms for the unofficial visits in question.

Rivals.com ranks Muhammad, a 6-foot-6-inch swingman, the nation’s No. 1 senior prospect regardless of position. He scored 36 points to power Gorman to a 96-51 rout of Hug in the Class 4A state title game Feb. 24 in Reno.

Muhammad made an official visit to Kansas last weekend and will make an official visit to Duke to watch the Blue Devils host North Carolina on Saturday. He also has made official visits to Texas A&M and Kentucky.

Muhammad is considering scholarship offers from Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, UNLV, UCLA and Arizona.

Holmes politely declined an interview Thursday but wrote in a text message that Orr has been hired as Muhammad’s attorney and that William Trosch has been hired as his own attorney.

Orr and Trosch are based in North Carolina. Orr represented North Carolina defensive end Quinton Coples in a case with the NCAA last year.

“One of the things I would ask the NCAA official when I talk to them is, 'Tell me what bylaw may have been violated,’ ” Orr said of Muhammad. “As a lawyer, I deal with factual clarity. I spent some time going through the manual trying to figure out what’s going on that can negatively impact Shabazz. Truthfully, I really don’t see anything right now.”

Eric Toliver, UNLV’s senior associate athletics director for compliance, told the Review-Journal on Wednesday that UNLV indeed had heard from the NCAA on the recruitment of a prospect, but he couldn’t confirm any names.