As you know, we
have followed the Tamir Goodman story closely since it broke, and the twists
and turns are worse than a roller coaster. In the most recent development,
the
Baltimore Sun posted an A-1 story (this wasn't immediately obvious on the
Web) about how Maryland is apparently cooling on Goodman. This was
followed by the Gibbons article, where Quotin' Bob defended
Goodman's ability to play on a high level. Now, there is another article in
the Sun by Ken Rosenthal which, in so many words, accuses
the Maryland staff of double-dealing and trying to back out of their offer to
Goodman.
This may be turning into a nasty bit of work: Maryland thought enough of
Goodman to offer him a scholarship and to promise to accommodate his religious
needs - essentially to honor his kosher diet and to allow him to honor the
Sabbath.
Now, though, increasingly, the signs indicate that Maryland either doesn't
feel comfortable allowing him to honor God from Sundown Friday to Sundown
Saturday, which would present problems for practices and games, or that they
think they seriously misjudged his talent. If it's the former, then they
should be ashamed to have promised to accommodate a devout young man's faith. It
comes across like they told him whatever he wanted to hear to get him to come to
Maryland.
If it's the latter, they should be just plain embarrassed to be such poor
judges of talent (for the record, we still think he's a player), but they made
an offer and they should be men enough to keep their word. They are basing this,
apparently, on his play in the summer, but Goodman has been playing for much of
the summer on an injured knee (an MCL sprain), that is when he could play. He
hasn't played a lot and has spent a fair amount of time getting treatment.
Our understanding is that Gary Williams was watching him play when the injury
occurred, so surely he knows that this has been an issue.
The suspicion that Maryland (read: Gary Williams) is trying to weasel out of
this commitment is reinforced by the A-1 location of the previous Sun story:
stories don't make the front page of the paper - as opposed to the sports page -
unless they are well-understood, legally reliable, and the source is
highly credible. So when the story cites "a source in the athletic
department," that has to be a highly credible source. It's not the janitor.
It almost has to be someone on the basketball staff. Certainly the
location of the story indicates great faith in the source.
It looks more and more like Gary's got a big stripe down his back, and from a
distance it's hard to tell if it's white or yellow. If he weasels out of
this, his credibility will take a big hit, which is too bad since it took
several years to get the University of Maryland's foot back in Baltimore doors..
He's got enough baggage already, frankly, without rendering his word
meaningless. No doubt the Crazies will remember it if he does.