Hoyaboya,
You should hold a Hoyatalk party at your house -- I've always wanted to live in a glass house.
Curtis Malone has done a lot more good in his life than bad. He's helped hundreds of young men develop a skill that has enabled them to get a college education for free. He did the crime and he did his time. I think it's important for young people to hear from their seniors -- particularly those who look like them -- and learn from their mistakes. Malone has spoken to many D1 mens college basketball teams.
Also, for anyone who wants Ewing to develop better local relationships that lead to recruiting, a relationship with Malone is critical.
You know, in this country, you can still make a mistake, pay a penalty, and have a productive, positive and full life.
Getting back to Mohammed, I'm sure if he's informed that he's going to be a first round pick then he's gone ... even better if it's a lottery, but 3 years of guaranteed money ... that is the goal. I'd hope that Mr. Harmon would provide that advice to Mohammed and his parents.
Beneath the vaulted ceiling of Courtroom 23, Malone’s drug and basketball empires both officially crumbled. Court documents and recordings from police wiretaps reveal two illicit -- and booming -- operations: a large cocaine and heroin ring that law enforcement officials estimate generated $80,000 per month in profits, and an AAU program that operated through favors, threats and backroom deals.
In an orange jumpsuit and white prison slippers, Malone sat solemnly before Judge Ellen S. Huvelle while awaiting his sentencing. He wore thick-rimmed glasses, his mustache neatly trimmed, and his voice quavered as he explained his guilty plea. “I stand in front of you with no excuses,” Malone said. “Twenty years later I’m back to what got me in trouble before.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Gripkey and law-enforcement- officials dismiss this notion. They acknowledge Malone’s work in the community but paint his motives as simple greed. “This isn’t a Robin Hood situation,” says DEA Special Agent in Charge Karl C. Colder. “He used those kids. In one [sense] he’s helping young men. But at the same time he could be poisoning their parents or relatives. It’s impersonating a cause.”
Judge Huvelle sentenced Malone to 100 months in jail. And as Malone, 45, winked to the gallery before being sent off, he left friends, family and the basketball world to figure out whether he was an AAU coach moonlighting as a drug dealer or a drug dealer masquerading as an AAU coach.
“It’s a lot easier being a drug dealer than an AAU coach,” Malone said earlier this month in an interview at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa. “At least you know what you’re dealing with every day when you’re a drug dealer.”
Court documents show that by 2013, Malone had an established cocaine operation and appeared to be setting up a steady heroin operation. “Cocaine buys cars, and heroin buys houses,” says Abdalla, repeating a law-enforcement- aphorism he learned during his 28 years investigating narcotics. Abdalla, who recently retired from the force, called Malone an “upper-tier” dealer in the D.C. area.
Malone quickly grasped that in the essentially unregulated youth basketball world, the key is to acquire talent, because talent provides exposure, credibility and leverage, including access to college coaches, sneaker companies and NBA agents. “I ran my program as an amateur program,” says Rob Jackson, who oversaw the rival DC Blue Devils. “He ran his as a business. He sold kids to schools, sold kids to agents.”
Not long before Malone took over D.C. Assault, he discovered a 6-foot-8 high school freshman with a guard’s shooting touch at the Watts playground in Northeast D.C. Recognizing DerMarr Johnson’s potential, Malone bought him Air Jordan sneakers, Timberlands and a leather jacket. “I was like, Damn, this is my guy right here,” says Johnson.
Before meeting Malone, Johnson wasn’t even eligible to compete in high school basketball for academic reasons; Malone not only helped him study but also guided him through four schools in five years, using Johnson’s case as a blueprint for his future mentees. He became so close to the players -- traveling with them, giving them gear and even taking them in -- that they didn’t mind if he tried to make money off them. Malone did not coddle them; he sent Johnson for his final year of high school to MaineCentral Institute in a rural part of the state against Johnson’s wishes. Malone steered Johnson to Cincinnati to play for Huggins, then encouraged him to declare for the NBA draft after his freshman year. Johnson signed with agent Dan Fegan before the 2000 draft because, he told Sports Illustrated, “it was [Malone’s] decision.”
And Johnson did plenty for Malone. The Hawks chose the 6-9 Johnson with the sixth pick, and he gave Malone a Mercedes, paid him an allowance of $6,500 per month and, over his first few years in the league, donated $15,000 per year to D.C. Assault.
Trouble came when Beasley was preparing to enter the draft. Beasley says that Malone arranged for him to be represented by Joel Bell, a mid-level agent in the D.C. area whose two sons played for Assault. A lawsuit filed by Beasley contends that Bell gave Malone “benefits for his D.C. Assault program” and money “in exchange for [Malone] at least attempting to manipulate prospects like -Beasley” into signing with Bell.
Agents have long used brokers to deliver athletes to them from AAU programs. Martin, now with South Carolina, says he knew of an arrangement between Malone and Bell. “I won’t tell you I didn’t know about it,” he says. “Of course I knew about it. Agents run the NBA, agents run grassroots basketball.”
Drug dealers often court nice-guy reputations. They pick up the tab for kids when the ice cream truck rolls by, and they put up basketball rims on the blacktop. They endear themselves to the same neighborhoods they poison.
When he was coach at Maryland, Gary Williams refused to deal with Malone, telling his assistants that he wasn’t going to deal with a drug dealer. “I know what he is,” Williams, who declined to comment for this story, told The Washington Post in 2009.
www.si.com/college/2014/08/20/curtis-malone-aau-basketball-drug-arrest