UCLA strife detailed in SI piece
Those who follow college basketball closely know the UCLA basketball program has gone through much internal strife in the years since going to three straight Final Fours, and George Dohrmann does a great job detailing the issues in a Sports Illustrated story published Wednesday.
While coach Ben Howland is portrayed as distant and abusive in letting the once-proud program spiral out of control, former Bruins center Reeves Nelson is vilified in the piece.
The amount of detail in the reporting is worth the read and far too in depth to get into in this space. But what is perhaps most important to college basketball fans in Las Vegas and of the Mountain West Conference is the fact former Bruins forward Mike Moser, who transferred to UNLV, comes off positively.
Former UCLA forward Drew Gordon? Not so much. The story accuses Gordon, who transferred to New Mexico, of being one of the Bruins' biggest partyers, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana during his freshman season, as well as being confrontational with the coaches.
Not surprisingly, though, Nelson essentially is blamed for many of the transfers of several key UCLA players over the past few years, including Moser to UNLV and Matt Carlino to Brigham Young.
Nelson was a problem on and off the court, intentionally injuring players during practice and coming to blows with Gordon and Moser, according to the story. (Gordon and Moser also allegedly fought at a workout.)
To Nelson's credit, he was forthright in the article. He acknowledged much of what he did wrong before finally being kicked off the team early this season and said he is working on straightening up while training for the NBA Draft.
He also might have a future in soccer. Apparently, Nelson would punt basketballs high into the stands at Pauley Pavilion after practice and tell the student managers to "fetch."
The bottom line: Howland better hope he can land Bishop Gorman senior Shabazz Muhammad. Otherwise, the coach might be following some of his many recruits out the door of the program.
■ HOUSING CRISIS -- Dallas Mavericks guard Delonte West spent the early part of the season sleeping in his car or the team's locker room.
West, who famously took a job at a Washington, D.C., area furniture store during the NBA lockout because he had burned through the nearly $14 million he had made in the league, told the Dallas Morning News he was having trouble securing a place to live because he has been convicted of a crime.
The team was allowed to provide the enigmatic guard a hotel room during training camp and on road trips, but not during regular-season homestands because it would constitute an extra benefit.
Once owner Mark Cuban was made aware of West's predicament, he quickly arranged a place for West to rent.
One wonders why one of the other Mavericks wouldn't just allow West to crash at their mom's house. After all, according to reports out of Cleveland a couple of years ago, West was sleeping with LeBron James' mom.
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
