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During the Final Four — or just about any time when villainous suspicion is drawn on Calipari — columnists made sure to mention their favorite urban horror legend. You can find him whenever powerful NBA players meet, where championships are held and you can summon him by saying his name five times in a mirror.
World Wide Wes. World. Wide. Wes. World Wide. Wes.
Before the championship game [URL=”http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/04/building-kentucky-basketball.html”]The New Yorker lamented[/URL] how William Wesley made Calipari and cheated Kentucky fans out of the “traditional narrative” provided by players staying three or four years. I’m pretty sure Kentucky basketball’s “traditional narrative” is actually winning championships.
After the championship game a columnist for [URL=”http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2012/04/worldwide_wes_was_behind_the_k_1.html”]The Oregonian claimed[/URL] that Wesley should’ve helped the Wildcats cut down the nets and that the NCAA should look into Wesley’s friendship with Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne. Strange that columnist never called for an investigation when Payne was an assistant coach at the University of Oregon.
Boogidy-boogidy! The scared journos think Wesley haunts all of basketball; stalking high-school talent to ultimately land them to his sports agency and STEAL THEIR SOULS (AND MONEY)! Fitting into this amateur sports horror-narrative was how Wesley would clean up with Kentucky’s group of freshmen by signing most or all of them to his agency.
Only [URL=”http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger-college-basketball-blog/kentucky-players-may-not-listen-worldwide-wes-much-201107218–ncaab.html”]Michael Kidd-Gilchrist signed with Wesley’s CAA[/URL]. That’s like Freddy Kruger killing one kid in his sleep and then encouraging the rest of the neighborhood kids to get treated for sleep apnea.
There’s no doubt that Wesley financially benefits from his incredible reach into the business of basketball. The public knows very little about him and even less about his motives. What little we do know tells Wesley as a selfless, trusted adviser for a small section of exceptional people who’s normally surrounded by selfish advisers. [URL=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100208/two”]My favorite WWW story[/URL] involves a young player who wants to go wild at NBA All-Star weekend: Wesley tells him, “nothing good can happen at this point… You can’t chase the night. When the night is over, the night is over.”
When [URL=”http://espn.go.com/blog/sportscenter/post/_/id/52575/who-in-the-world-is-world-wide-wes”]Wesley’s rumored plan[/URL] to combine LeBron James and John Calipari in the NBA allegedly failed, I doubt seriously that Wesley writhed in pain and cursed the triumphant heroes for ending his reign as the Terror of the Hardwood. The night was over; Wes went back to becoming an insulated one-man social network for the hooped and famous.
The business of basketball isn’t a horror movie: There’s no plucky group of poor, misguided amateur kids being cut down one-by-one by supernatural villain-agents. That world only exists in the dreams of sports writers who are too disinterested in the truth.
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