Alonzo Mourning Tells Two Stories

College Recruiting (at First) Overshadows Defeat of Kidney Disease

The release of a book by basketball all-star Alonzo Mourning, "Resilience," rightfully will focus on the courage he displayed. Mourning astonished many onlookers when returned to play, and in fact to play well, after a kidney transplant.

But first, in the publicity department, there is another matter that will need to be aired out. Mourning writes that various colleges - specifically Maryland, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and Virginia - recruited him with offers of fancy clothes and dinners, and that "everyone understood I could have gotten money at any of these places."

It seems that Alonzo Mourning is maybe the 10,000th athlete to write or say these things, yet each time, the sports media gets all titillated. Has not "the system" been described by now? Things start with the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association or Not Caring About Athletes, depending upon one's viewpoint). The NCAA helps to reap millions of dollars of revenues for the athletic enclaves at major colleges, but so-called student athletes are not allowed to receive even a dime.

Meanwhile, coaches must win or get fired. Coaches therefore cheat and many feel justified, given that the NCAA rules are so draconian that they cannot even give a kid a plane ticket to head home for a family funeral, much less a ride to the airport. The system is so entrenched that even the venerable John Wooden is a hush-hush suspect, with a number of former players saying they received cash and clothes from a go-between named Sam Gilbert.

What will happen as a result of Mourning's revelations? If the past is premise, nothing. The prospect of the NCAA adopting reform in recruitment has about the same chance as creation of a college football playoff system.