OKC pro players should steer clear of college hangouts
Stay away from campus, NBA
OKC pro players should steer clear of college hangouts

By Berry Tramel

Published: September 3, 2008

Sooner Jenna Plumley helps herself to some Wal-Mart makeup. Cowgirl Andrea Riley gets suspended for slapping an opponent.

Sooner Blake Griffin is cited for urinating in public. Cowboy Terrel Harris spends the summer in purgatory for unspecified infractions. Sooner Ray Willis gets stabbed in a 2 a.m. melee that involves guns, knives and tire irons.

Oh my. That's a very unfortunate list of unfortunate activity.

I certainly hope the behavior of our uncouth college basketball players in this state doesn't rub off on the splendid young men who play NBA basketball for us here in Oklahoma City.

These clean-cut lads haven't been exposed to such conduct. Haven't been privy to such a culture of wantonness.

These crew-cut, pimply-faced boys, fresh off the farm, might be vulnerable to such outside influences. I would hate to see their innocence dashed because of exposure to the college crowd.

The NBA ballplayers, we are told, are fine, upstanding gentlemen. And who are we to disagree?

The Hornets who bunked with us for two years were exemplary citizens. The Birdman was a clown; he also was tossed from the league while in OKC. The NBA doesn't put up with that. The NBA has an image to uphold.

Only a smattering of NBA ballplayers spent any discernible time on a college campus. They instead came straight from high school, or from Europe, or did a campus drive-through on their way to the pros.

They weren't there long enough to be coddled and sheltered and treated like royal sovereigns.

Not so in big-time college sports. Big-time college sports have turned the process upside down. College once was where kids went to mature. Now, if college ballplayers mature, it's in spite of their environment, not because of it.

If I'm Clay Bennett or Sam Presti or P.J. Carlesimo, I'm putting down only two rules.

1. Don't go to Norman.

2. Don't go to Stillwater.

Hang out at Bricktown all you want. Frequent Bobo's in the witching hour. Heck, visit the Habana Inn if you want.

Just stay away from the ivory towers.

There's trouble in numbers. College athletes are cursed by masses. There's so danged many of them.

Meanwhile, the NBA guys are going to get to town and be an exclusive club. OKC is doing all right, but that doesn't mean we've got a glut of 22-year-old millionaires roaming the streets.

We've got to protect these striplings. Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and the like. They're unsullied in the sanctuary of pro basketball.

Let's keep them pure.

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