Did Chris Douglas-Roberts Accidentally Tell on Coach Cal & WWW?
Former Memphis Tigers star and current New Jersey Nets player Chris Douglas-Roberts might have accidentally let something slip on Twitter last week that he might shouldn’t have.
The Twitter ‘Trending Topic’ was #whenIfirstmet and CDR had tweeted his first time experiences meeting such celebs as Jay-Z, Beyonce, John Calipari, and finally NBA mega-star and Nike spokesman LeBron James.
On the surface it might not seem like such a big deal and just an innocent tweet. But it got me to thinking about the shadiness of former Memphis and current Kentucky Wildcats basketball coach John Calipari and how he works the system, legally and in some cases illegally according to some.
Coach Cal is infamously associated with the mysterious basketball power broker known as William ‘World Wide Wes (WWW)’ Wesley who is extremely tight with dozens of NBA, college, and AAU basketball players and coaches across the country. The most famous of his NBA marriages is – naturally – to LeBron James.
WWW is often seen courtside at Cavs games. He was at the Palace of Auburn Hills when the infamous Ron Artest brawl took place. He was seen at numerous Memphis games when Calipari coached there and now he, naturally, pops up at Kentucky Wildcats games (see photo above, to the right of Ashley Judd).
So back to the CDR-Twitter story. Douglas-Roberts tweets that, when he was 17-years old, that the great LeBron James had his private jet pick him up and take him to the Denver-Minnesota playoff game in Denver.
This could have taken place for one of two games. Either, the game on April 24, 2004 or the game on April 27, 2004, as Denver only hosted two home playoff games against the Timberwolves in 2004.
So five months after LeBron flies him down to Denver for a NBA Playoff game, Douglas-Roberts then commits to play basketball at the University of Memphis for coach John Calipari. Are you picking up on the CDR-LBJ-WWW-CAL connection?
LeBron said on The Best Damn Sports Show several years ago that if he had gone to college he would have gone to Memphis so he could have played for Coach Calipari.
I am not sure of the NCAA rules regarding this. I would have to assume it’s a legal loophole and the one that William Wesley and Calipari have shadily mastered, ever since they first arranged for Dajuan Wagner and his father Milt Wagner to show up in Memphis. Wagner was the first big time recruit to sign with Calipari at Memphis.
Whether it was illegal or not, it’s pretty easy to follow the breadcrumbs here: Coach Cal was recruiting Chris Douglas-Roberts back in 2004. How can he impress a highly impressionable 17-year old kid from Detroit? He can call his good buddy William Wesley who phones into a favor to LeBron, and LeBron has his private jet pick up CDR and fly him to the Minnesota-Denver playoff game.
Lets not forget that CDR turned into a great college basketball player and NBA player, but he was not highly recruited out of high school. He was ranked 75th nationally and 26th at his position. So it is not like LeBron was sending the jet for the second coming of himself. It was either as a favor to William Wesley or perhaps LBJ Airways provides this service for all Top 100 recruits in the country.
The underlying connection to it all? NIKE! Coach Calipari is under contract to Nike and for his teams to wear Nike, and LeBron James makes 8 figures annually as a Nike endorser. It creates a full circle pipeline of talent that almost always ends up as Nike endorsers. [see update below]
CDR is from Detroit, the same city that William ‘WWW’ Wesley now makes as his home. Also, the same city that Derrick Rose (or someone like him) allegedly took the SAT back in 2007. The test was invalidated due to fraud by the standardized testing committee. The NCAA claimed that Memphis should have known that Rose didn’t take the test and had someone else take the test for it. The handwriting on the test in question doesn’t match Rose’s penmanship.
The NCAA stripped the Memphis Tiger’s 2008 Final Four appearance earlier this year over the issue and also for allowing Derrick’s brother to fly on the team’s charter plane without being charged.
The vacated Final Four is the second of John Calipari’s college coaching career. He is the only coach in NCAA history to have two Final Four appearances removed from the record books.
[UPDATE: Several people have mentioned that Memphis wore adidas shoes until Calipari's last year when the Tigers switched over to Nike. This is true, but Calipari changed from adidas to Nike after the adidas deal expired. In his 2006 contract renegotiation Cal negotiated to "negotiate a shoe deal" and "keep all the income" according to Sports Business Daily (April 19, 2006).
He will also receive a $300,000 guarantee in shoe/apparel money. Calipari is allowed “to negotiate a shoe deal with any company and keep all the income,” money he previously had to share with UM. Calipari is expected to earn $225,000 in shoe money from adidas in ’06-07, meaning he will earn at least $1.525M next year.
So as soon as the adidas deal expired Nike and Cal exchanged vows, and in the process Coach Cal got to keep all of the money. Cal has always been 3 steps ahead of whoever he was negotiating with, and with Memphis AD R.C. Johnson, Calipari was likely a good half-marathon ahead.
Calipari was working with Nike and through its subordinates, Wesley, LeBron and company, long before he could officially get the Tigers switched over to Nike. As soon as he had the power, he negotiated the deal for the University and kept the money in the process per his 2006 contract extension.]
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One problem– Memphis was an Adidas school while CDR played for them. They were not a Nike school until Calipari’s last season
NJ1 is right, Memphis was an adidas school until CDR had left.
Also, Derrick’s brother only flew on the Tiger plane ONCE without being charged. Every other time he paid his own way, it was a clerical oversight that was paid later.
And if frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their butts. So Nike wasn’t used by UM then. Oh well never mind. lol
Uh Rose is from Chicago, not Detroit.
I didn’t know cal was an admissions officer at Memphis. Seems to me that the school dropped the ball on that one. One thing I don’t get is why guys like Camby and Cory Mcgetty take that chump change and jeopordize their teams success.
Steve Fisher of Michagan and now San Diego St. had 2 final fours vacated.
Coach Calipari is a scumbag and this should not have surprised anyone. He could not make it in the NBA because there is a salary cap in place but he can cheat in college and make it look as if he could coach when all he does is recruit the best players by cheating and still lose.
@Larry Rose is from Chicago…he took the invalidated SAT test in Detroit though. Hence all the more reason for suspicion. He took the SAT the first three times in Chicago.
@randy You are correct. I should have stated at two different schools for Calipari, several years apart. Fisher’s were for the same Fab Five teams.
Good feedback.
Calimari is going to get caught, it’s only a matter of time. What will really upset fans is if this UK teams beats say Duke for instance in the Final Four, then UK beats Syracuse for the championship, but down the road the wins are vacated for a third time, who is champion? Syracuse? How is that fair to a team like Duke, if they lose? It wouldn’t be an issue if the NCAA had a pair and not allowed this scumbag to coach anymore. I hope when he gets caught again, all the schools that lose to UK that year in the tournament, sue the NCAA for all the potential lost revenue for allowing Calamari to cheat for the third time at his third different school.
here is why this is BS. first, Cal was Nike until he came back in the college game and went to Reebok. Nike had lowered what they were paying all college coaches in his short absence except a few, Calhoun being one who had just won a Natl Chpshp and was also someone who Cal had a big rivalry with. Nike gave Cal the new number, much below what he was used to. Cal said the dirty word to Nike, “pay me or I’ll go to Addidas”. you don’t say that to billionaire Knight who Cal kept threatening the negotiator he would call directly. Cal was dead to Nike for many years and only got back in with Nike when Alan Graf, CFO of FedEx, went on their board, Memphis was very good, and time had cured the hurt feelings by Phil Knight and Nike.
Also, Memphis did NOT recruit CDR at that time. They kept a schollie for Earnest Shelton who was from Memphis. when he wouldn’t commit Cal threatened him in the media that he would give it to first commitment. Cal then offered CDR virtually immediately and he committed without ever having visited the campus. This all happened in the fall. But as great as CDR was, he was a hurried back-up when Cal decided to show up Shelton. Back in the previous Spring, CDR was not on Memphis radar and the trip to Denver is a WWW special but nothing to do with Memphis. No one had any idea CDR would turn out so great and truthfully wouldn’t had Cal not totally adopted Dribble Drive Offense that year.
Sorry, no conspiracy but with this kind of modern day journalism of connecting dots and drawing conclusions, you probably would have convicted LBJ for the JFK murder.
Sorry the Memphis recruit Cal was holding the scholarship for was PJ Prince. We were lucky to duck that bullet and get CDR. Prince would never have made it in Memphis as he didn’t make it in Arizona.
didnt lebron say if he went to college it would be kentucky…..one more reason
“One thing I don’t get is why guys like Camby and Cory Mcgetty take that chump change and jeopordize their teams success.”
I agree with you. The funny thing is, Duke never had their title vacated. Isn’t that funny. Why isn’t their title stripped? Everyone knows, and Mcgetty admitted taking money, Coach K knew, the university knew, the players knew, its a fact. But nobody ever talks about that.
The NCAA is at fault here, because they don’t have to answer to anyone. Who oversees the NCAA process? The NCAA! They and the clearing house are responsible for ‘clearing’ a player to be recruited. Once the player is cleared, coaches can recruit. The NCAA cleared Rose, let him play all year ( cause they knew he’d make them a lot of money ), then blame Cal and Memphis. And now, deny their appeal – of which they had a strong case. Just total BS – I might as well right an appeal to stop the Healthcare bill!!
Soooo someone with ZERO affiliation with Memphis(Lebron) flew CDR out to a game when he was 17…. and then a whole 5 months later(geez that’s a real quick time period) he signs to Memphis. You really convinced me(sarcasm). Also, do some research. Lebron has always said he would’ve gone to Ohio State if he were to have gone to college. I vividly remember him saying this multiple times during the year of Oden and Conley. Lebron has said he wants his KIDS to play for Calipari one day. Get your facts straight.
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Why is a 17 year old kid flying in LeBron’s private jet? He’s not family, he din’t win a contest, and he’s not a “Make-A-Wish” kid. Does LeBron have some Michael Jackson tendencies? haha
The stench off of Cal/Nike Connections is nauseating…
No, no, no, no, no…..
LeBron’s interest in Cal has to do with his marketing/representation agency, LRMR, not their Nike ties: http://www.lrmrmarketing.com/
LeBron funnels the players to Cal for college (by doing favors like this) with the hope that Cal funnels the players back to LeBron when they turn pro. Quid pro quo.
See John Wall story: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebronwall041310
Thoughts?
Lebron and Calipari didnt even know each other up until a year ago.
CDR is from Michigan and is a family friend with former Central Michigan coach, who plays pickup ball with LeBron and introduced CDR and Lebron. Nothing illegal about a friend flying a friend somewhere to watch a game.
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Im not worried about Calipari…. He never won anything at Memphis and Kentucky only hired him to draw recruits there…. so they won’t get passed by UNC in alltime wins. It’s so funny that when UNC won the 2009 Title and got within 4 wins of UK they go out and pay Cal all that money to come there. I’m gonna be rolling in the floor when UK has all those wins vacated in a few years. Anyone with a brain inside their head knows UNC reached 2,000 wins in 100 years of basketball.That’s 20 wins per season when UK reached 2,000 wins in 109 years. LOL!!!!