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[LEFT]Although Shabazz Muhammad’s eligibility has recently come into question by the NCAA, Robert Orr, the attorney representing Muhammad, [URL=”http://www.lvrj.com/sports/lawyer-out-to-ensure-eligibility-of-muhammad-not-in-jeopardy-141156513.html?ref=513″]tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Muhammad and his family have done nothing wrong[/URL].
“Shabazz is completely innocent. There’s been no accusation that he in any way has done anything wrong,” said Orr. “It’s inconceivable to me that he can be punished and a school that he selects could be punished in any way.”
The NCAA is currently scrutinizing the financing of several of Muhammad’s unofficial visits, which were at least partially funded by Benjamin Lincoln, the family’s financial adviser.
Muhammad has taken somewhere in the vicinity of 14 unofficial visits, but Ron Holmes, Muhammad’s father, says that he and his son have filled out compliance forms for each of the unofficial visits in question.
Orr explains that the problem comes as a result of the obscurity of the NCAA’s rules, not the actions of Muhammad and his father.
“Certainly their impression is that they were within NCAA rules,” said Orr. “I have often quoted the assistant dean of the Duke law school, ‘The problem with the NCAA rule book isn’t its length. It’s that it’s intellectually incomprehensible.’ There’s great confusion and lack of clarity in how the rules are applied.”
For the record, section 13.02.16.2 of the 439-page NCAA Division I Manual reads: “An unofficial visit to a member institution by a prospective student-athlete is a visit made at the prospective student-athlete’s own expense.”
It’s hard to say how this situation is going to play out, but it appears that it is ultimately going to come down to a matter of interpretation.[/LEFT]
