The original story from the Memphis Commercial-Appeal:
[b]Memphis players’ apartment burgled; furs among thefts
By Gary Parrish
November 9, 2004
While the University of Memphis basketball team was winning its first exhibition Saturday night, a campus apartment that houses players was burglarized.
The victims were Clyde Wade, Arthur Barclay, Rodney Carney and Joey Dorsey. According to a report filed with the Memphis Police Department at 11:04 p.m. Saturday, the four players were robbed of approximately $66,720 worth of possessions, including eight mink coats valued at $40,000.
However, by Monday afternoon, the report was amended and minks removed.
Curt Guenther, director of communications services at the UofM, said late Monday that the report instead now stated that nine fur coats “of some description” and two fur purses were taken. All together, those items were valued at $3,600, and, according to Guenther, did not belong to the players, but rather a friend.
Memphis coach John Calipari declined comment after the Tigers’ 110-46 victory over LeMoyne-Owen on Monday, citing a lack of knowledge about the situation. He added that he planned to meet with Wade, Barclay, Carney and Dorsey after his postgame press conference.
The original police report listed descriptions of 20 types of items that were taken. Among them were $2,500 in diamond earrings, $4,000 in custom-made shirts and $6,000 worth of shoes.
No arrests have been made. Campus police said Monday that the investigation is ongoing.[/b]
And the follow-up…
[b]Calkins: Shedding light on the situation
By Geoff Calkins
November 10, 2004
John Calipari stood before the assembled cameras at the Finch Center, fastening microphones to his sweatshirt, his collar, his pockets.
“I guess you’re here about the Savannah State game,” he said.
Ba-dum-bum.
Nobody was there to talk about Savannah State.
They were there to talk about minks, stolen minks, $40,000 of minks allegedly swiped from the apartment of four University of Memphis basketball players.
Forty thousand in minks?
What college basketball player can buy $40,000 in minks?
And why would he want to anyway?
The Tigers are going to New York twice in the next month.
What’s the new team motto: Refuse to Freeze?
They’re playing a new game at the Finch Center these days.
Shirts and pelts.
And so forth and so on. Insert your own, personal mink joke here.
Except – yeah, stop the presses – I believe Calipari on this one.
“There is no conspiracy,” Calipari said, “there were no $40,000 in minks.”
Oh.
Geez.
What are we going to do with our TV cameras now?
Here’s Calipari’s story, and he was sticking to it Tuesday afternoon.
The apartment of Clyde Wade, Arthur Barclay, Joey Dorsey and Rodney Carney was burgled Saturday night. Wade called in a list of stolen items, including furs that belonged to a female friend of one of the players.
When the officer asked how much they were worth, Wade called the friend.
“Five thousand,” she said.
Wade figured this meant each fur. Eight furs, forty grand.
The woman actually meant roughly $5,000 total. They were fake furs. The police report was then amended to reflect the true value of the theft.
End of scandal, end of story.
“You can believe it or not believe it,” Calipari said. “But that’s what happened.”
There are reasons to be skeptical, of course. If you have additional questions, well, you should:
- Why believe Calipari?
This is a man who didn’t know that Marcus Camby hit the motherlode at the University of Massachusetts. Why believe he knows what’s going on now?
Because he sounded like a guy who was telling the truth. Really, he did. It’s theoretically possible he cooked up the story about the fake furs, but he seems a lot smarter than that.
- What kind of “friend” has eight fake furs anyway?
It’s actually nine fake fur coats and two fake fur purses. Which is bizarre to say the least. Someone asked Calipari who would have this kind of stuff. Calipari shrugged. We know she’s female. We know she has interesting costume needs. Maybe she’s a magician?
- Aren’t there other suspicious aspects to this burglary?
Yes. The door showed no signs of forced entry. One officer said police were looking at “whether there was an actual burglary.”
In the words of Scooby Doo, Ruh-ro.
But let’s consider the door. What does that tell you, anyway? That someone had a key. That one of the players was either involved or duped.
Wade could be a candidate. He didn’t have his key Saturday night. If Wade had anything to do with the burglary, he won’t be on the team for long. But shouldn’t we wait before accusing Wade? As unconventional as that may be?
- How about the recent fur robbery across town?
Again, Calipari said no real furs were taken from the players apartment. I happen to believe him. If he’s fibbing, the you-know-what is going to fly.
- OK, forget the minks. There was a mess of other stuff taken, including $4,000 in custom-made shirts, $6,000 in shoes, $5,000 in pants and $2,150 in throwback jerseys. What should we make of that?
Roughly half of the stuff belonged to Wade, who was recently acquitted of identity theft. Make of that what you will.
But Calipari had this to say: “These kids are not like you and me when we went to school.”
A Memphis basketball player gets tuition, room and board. He also can get up to $4,050 in money from Pell grants. He also gets $275 a month for additional meal money. He also has a good shot shot at a summer job with FedEx.
Total that up, and you’re looking at more than $10,000 a year in spending money. That’s a lot of throwback jerseys. And that’s in addition to whatever the kid might get from home.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s that people should shut up about the poor, exploited athletes who need a stipend to buy pizza for their favorite girls.
Tiger players can buy plenty of pizza. They can even get extra cheese.
- So what’s the upshot?
At best, this is unseemly. The woman. The furs. The door. The altered police report.
Fans want to believe their guys play for the love of the game, then return to their dorms to drink milk.
That’s not the world today. That wasn’t even the world back then.
But there doesn’t seem to be a major scandal here, just a minor embarrassment.
The Tigers will still start their season Thursday night.
On the Road to the Final Fur.[/b]
Link: Memphis Commercial-Appeal [Site registration required]
I’m going to miss those guys once we move to the A-10… :lol:
