Muhammad sets ground rules for involved father

MINNEAPOLIS — For the first 20 years of his life, almost every time Shabazz Muhammad turned around on a basketball court, his father was right there behind him.

Ron Holmes meticulously planned out and cultivated his son’s playing career, from Muhammad’s very first days in sneakers, through the construction of AAU teams that allowed his son to become one of the most heavily recruited prep stars in the nation and during his one and only season at UCLA.

Now that Muhammad, a Bishop Gorman High product, is preparing to make the long-anticipated jump from college to the pros, he is telling his famously involved — and occasionally trouble-making — father to take a seat on the bench. Muhammad said the two had a conversation last month setting new ground rules for their relationship going forward.

“I talk to him now as a dad,” Muhammad said Friday after being introduced as one of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ two first-round draft picks. “He’s not really in my basketball (life) anymore.

“I still love the guy. I talk to him about basketball and life. But he doesn’t really come around with basketball anymore. I think that’s the appropriate thing to do. It’s really helping me out a lot.”

When Muhammad arrived at UCLA last year, he was hailed as the next great Bruin in the program’s storied history and the surefire No. 1 draft pick in 2013. But his stock dipped some, partly due to some off-the-court exploits by his father.

Muhammad had to sit out the first three games of the season and repay $1,600 in impermissible benefits after the NCAA and UCLA found that Muhammad accepted travel and lodging during three unofficial visits to Duke and North Carolina, travel arrangements made by his father.

It was also revealed in a Los Angeles Times story in March that Holmes shaved a year off his son’s age when he was young to give Muhammad an advantage against younger competition on the summer AAU circuit and in high school. Muhammad, it was revealed, was actually 20 and not 19.

Holmes also ran into trouble of his own with the law. He served six months’ house arrest in 2000 after pleading guilty to using fraudulent bank statements and tax returns to secure mortgages. Earlier in June, Holmes pleaded not guilty to federal bank fraud and conspiracy charges and is again on house arrest.

“There were some slip-ups with him. We definitely talked about that,” Muhammad said. “That’s why I loved doing interviews with NBA teams because they said, ‘When you look at him, they’re like this kid didn’t do anything. He’s a good kid.’ That’s one thing I wanted to reach out to everybody doing the interviews with me.

“My dad is a great guy, but with basketball, we don’t really talk about it. He’s just being a dad and just helping me out with life now.”