Tuesday, February 17, 1998
Yeah, and Elvis lives with my grandmother in Cincinnati
KARIAKIN: Unanswered questions on McCoy lead to conspiracy
theories
Like every student during midterms, Jelani McCoy knew he was
going to face some tough questions this week.
He just thought they would wait until Tuesday.
But over the weekend, the 6-foot-9-inch junior center got a jump
on things by answering two in short essay format (a.k.a.
a press release from the athletic department): one regarding his
future with the team and the other regarding its chances for a
national title this season.
The short answer for both: none.
When McCoy "resigned" this weekend, he ended his short but
tumultuous college basketball career, and dealt the death blow to
the Bruins’ already shaky title hopes. (Be honest, you knew it
wasn’t going to happen anyway.)
The only question McCoy didn’t answer was whose idea this all
was.
Maybe it was just because the press release was issued on a
Sunday and I was looking forward to the X-Files, but there is
something a little unnatural about this whole "resignation"
story.
Somebody call Oliver Stone, because I smell a c-o-n-spiracy.
The official story goes something like this: McCoy, suffering
from the intense media scrutiny of the past few months, decides to
spare himself, his family and his teammates the distraction. So,
some time between 3:45 (when the Cal game ended) and about 8 p.m.
(when ESPN started reporting his resignation during halftime of the
Utah game), McCoy approached a "senior administrator," not head
coach Steve Lavin or athletic director Peter Dalis, and quit the
team.
Oh, and did I mention that McCoy told The Associated Press after
the game that he would not consider quitting? "No, I’m not a
quitter," were his exact words.
So, it took four hours for McCoy to shower, dress, completely
change his mind, find a "senior administrator" who was not his
coach, quit, and for the story to leak out to Dick Vitale and then
on to his bosses at ESPN. It must have been quite an afternoon; I
hope Jelani had time for dinner.
But forget the Magic Bullet-like timeline for a minute, the
apparent haste with which a young man was making the biggest
decision of his young life: the story itself stinks worse than the
Bruins’ locker room after Saturday’s game.
One of the central claims made in the press release was that
McCoy felt the media attention was "proving disruptive to his
ability to concentrate on playing basketball." So, according to
this logic, in order to more easily focus on basketball, he is
giving up playing basketball. Makes sense, right?
Then there was the strange way in which McCoy allegedly went
about "resigning." Why would he do it to some mysterious "senior
administrator" instead of his coach or one of the assistants?
Athletic department officials, as has become standard when
dealing with McCoy, did little to quench the flames of controversy
during Lavin’s Sunday press conference (which, surprisingly, was
not held in the Texas Schoolbook Depository). They refused to
identify the "senior administrator" or even to say whether he or
she was a member of the athletic department or the school in
general.
"A senior administrator is all we’re going to say," Sports
Information Director Marc Dellins said.
Lavin, for his part, pleaded ignorance: "All I know is it’s a
senior administrator at UCLA."
Was this the same "UCLA administrator" that called Lavin to tell
him about the resignation, or does the school have a senior
administrator in charge of athletic resignations and another in
charge of phoning coaches about athletic resignations? Again, the
athletic department refused to say.
When asked why the school was being so secretive about the
identity of the staff of this new Athletic Resignation Department,
Dellins responded that it was because they were choosing to.
I see.
I don’t know about you, but that answer sure as hell satisfies
me.
In fact, about all they would say regarding the subject was that
the "senior administrator" was not athletic director Dalis, who was
apparently out of town this weekend.
That’s right, he was busy supervising the break-in at the
Democratic National Headquarters, wasn’t he?
And then there was the suddenness of it all. There had been some
rumors that McCoy was considering quitting during his suspension,
but those had died out with his reinstatement.
If he was so unhappy that he was considering quitting, why
wouldn’t he discuss it with Lavin or someone else beforehand?
According to Lavin, not only did this not happen, but the two had
not even spoken as of Lavin’s press conference.
Finally, there was, appropriately, the finality of it all: there
is no way McCoy will ever play for UCLA again. Repeatedly asked
what would happen should McCoy change his mind and "un-resign,"
Lavin responded that he would not be allowed to play for UCLA.
"No. He’s … he’s resigned," the coach said.
Kind of harsh for a guy who chose to leave of his own free will,
don’t you think?
Personally, I don’t buy it. Any of it.
I have my own idea on what happened. (I’m only putting forth a
theory here, so nobody sue me, okay?)
Bottom line, the continuous media attention focused on McCoy was
giving the school a bad name. Hey, we all saw it; we can read the
papers and watch TV just as well as the next guy. This, coming on
top of everything that happened last year with one Jim "Dick"
Harrick, was damaging UCLA’s reputation as the white knight of
college hoops and as one of the nation’s finest public
universities.
So, the school’s senior administrators (there’s that title
again) did what they thought they had to do, and eliminated the
cause of all the controversy.
They got rid of McCoy.
"I can’t comment on that," UCLA Vice Chancellor of Legal Affairs
Joseph Mandel said when asked if McCoy had been forced to
resign.
We understand, Joe. After all, we must keep the collective ass
covered now, mustn’t we?
Which is also the reason why Lavin appears to have been kept in
the dark as much as possible; he needed to be able to get up in
front of the cameras and microphones and believably say that, as
far as he knows, it was all Jelani’s decision.
It’s called plausible deniability.
And it’s deplorable.
As deplorable as their using McCoy’s supposed right to privacy
to hide their actions. If the administration forced McCoy out, they
need to be big enough to admit it.
This is a public institution, and, as such, they owe us an
explanation not only as members of the UCLA community, but as
taxpayers and citizens as well.
But, hey, that’s only my theory. (We must cover the individual
ass, too.) Who knows, maybe the truth is that McCoy did just up and
quit of his own volition.
Yeah, and maybe Oswald was the lone gunman.
The truth is out there.