Louisville basketball: Montrezl Harrell’s NCAA disassociation sanctions need to end

NCAA should do right by Louisville basketball.

Without any type of live sports or much in terms of “breaking” news, things have been fairly quiet on the Louisville basketball front – and really across all sports.

Even during the regular sports seasons, and non-sport seasons, I probably watch/listen to far more national sports shows than I would like to admit – especially during this time of social distancing and working remotely.

On Thursday as I was working my full-time job from home ESPN’s morning programming “Get Up”  hosted by Mike Greenberg,which features a number of analysts, reporters, and celebrity guests across all sports, found its way onto my TV.

I happened to hear the tail end of a conversation between Greenberg and panelists across including Jay Bilas, Desmond Howard, and Jalen Rose about Reggie Bush’s 10-year ban from USC coming to an official end.

For those that don’t remember, Bush was penalized by the NCAA for receiving “impermissible benefits” from a marketing company looking to secure his services, and it ended with him essentially being exiled for life (that was ultimately reduced) from the program that he put on the map. It also resulted in public pressure leading to Bush returning his Heisman Trophy.10 years later the penalties all seem just as crazy, if not crazier, than what we’ve seen from the NCAA over recent years.

NCAA’s ongoing punishment on one of Louisville basketball’s biggest stars

You may ask yourself what the heck does Reggie Bush’s disassociation from USC ending have to deal with Louisville? Well, if you remember from way back in 2017/2018 it was announced that the University of Louisville would undertake a disassociation of their own, banning former champions, Montrezl Harrell and Chane Behanan along with Chris Jones completely from the basketball program.

Amongst the numerous punishments levied against Louisville following the NCAA’s investigation into what is now known as the “Katina Powell scandal” but none of them were more ridiculous than the forced disassociation.

In a column in the Courier-Journal back in 2018, Tim Sullivan wrote about letters that went out from then AD Tom Jurich formally relaying the message to the three players who were being “exiled.” He wrote:

"“The institution is disappointed that you elected not to be interviewed in this process. As a former member of the men’s basketball team, you are a valued member of the athletics department community. Such membership requires certain responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is consenting to an interview regarding potential violations of NCAA legislation if requested to do so by the university.”"

Since the NCAA had no subpoena power or any method to force Harrell, Behanan, and Jones to talk, they decided to take matters in their owns hands – forcing the NCAA to cut ties with players who played an instrumental part of winning championships and dominating the college basketball landscape for so many years. The NCAA’s inability to uphold their own mission, vision, and values led to beloved players being wiped clean from the Louisville history books as if their sweat, blood, and tears didn’t make the pockets of their executives a lot heavier.

ALSO READ: 3 destinations for Montrezl Harrell in free agency

Greenberg shared his thoughts in a powerful statement on “Get Up,” and it reminded me of just how bad it is that Louisville can’t welcome back Montrezl Harrell and others. He said:

"“The forced notion of disassociation is steadfastly ridiculous. It is like placing on a human being the scarlet letter like he’s Hester Prynne, behaving like he’s a criminal. When at maximum what he did was violate some ridiculous rules that you set up in the first place. And the fact that they have the authority, or someone has decided they have the authority, to force a university to disassociate themselves from a human being who didn’t do anything too terrible in the major scheme of things is a joke.The notion that they can say here, you have to wear the Scarlett A, or the NCAA, whatever letters you want to put on it, is a joke.”"

Bilal didn’t mince words when he was asked about the punishment and its place in college sports. He said: “Disassociationg is a horrible sanction that the NCAA uses. I think it’s cruel, I don’t think its effective in any way.”

That struck a chord with me, considering that one of the greatest and most polarizing big men in program history is literally be exiled from the school where he dedicated four years of his life in order to get where he is today.

Jeff Greer wrote about the disassociation for the Courier-Journal, explaining the decision as: “an athletic department’s way of distancing itself from or cutting ties with former coaches, players, administrators, boosters or others who may be under NCAA scrutiny or who put the university at risk.” He also noted this doesn’t “necessarily indicate any wrongdoing.”

Harrell chose to not speak to the NCAA over things that he may and may not have been involved simply because he didn’t have to. By the time the NCAA investigation was launched, Harrell was gone to the NBA looking to become a role player for the Houston Rockets.

The disassociation was announced in 2017 while Harrell was in the midst of his third season in the NBA and first with the Los Angeles Clippers. As if it wasn’t already bad enough, Harrell has since been kicked out of the team’s facility on one or two occasions and has had to pay his own way in order to attend games.

https://twitter.com/ChristianDudley/status/901818678919999488

I understand the NCAA is all over Louisville right now and punishment should be handed down soon and now is not necessarily time to “rock the boat.” But with the disassociation of players being back in the news there’s enough power for a school like Louisville to stand up on the matter.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Times in 2019, USC Sports Information Director Tim Tessalone was asked about the Reggie Bush decision and how the University was fighting back and had interesting comments to say about the ruling:

"“USC has long said that we would love to have Reggie back around campus, but the NCAA has mandated the school permanently disassociate from Reggie. If we did so, it would lead to further NCAA penalties. We have tried several times to appeal the permanent disassociation with no luck. … We’re going to keep trying, but this isn’t a USC decision.”"

I understand this is not a Vince Tyra or University of Louisville thing and they have zero say in what happens. This is strictly a call on Mark Emmert and the NCAA. In a world where the organization is continuing to profit off of a system of free labor and controlling it to the point of “eliminating” anyone who doesn’t cooperate continues to show how outdated and unneeded the NCAA truly is.

As part of the punishment Sullivan wrote in his CJ article, “the university will refrain from accepting any assistance from the three players in recruiting or in the support of enrolled athletes; will refuse financial assistance or donations from the players to U of L’s athletic program; and will ensure that no athletic benefits or privileges are provided to the players that are not available to the general public.”

Harrell hasn’t stayed away from Louisville, using his long-standing connections to get better seats than I could ever get. But it’s unfortunate that while in the peak of his stardom the university can have nothing to do with him. We’ve seen how beneficial relationships between its alumni and sports programs can be, with the relationship of former Card Donovan Mitchell and Louisville being a great example.

While Harrell is by no means an NBA star, having him around the facility (giving him a place to workout) and able to interact with players is a huge deal in the era we’re in.

As recently as last year’s NBA Playoffs the Louisville basketball program did begin acknowledging Harrell, at least in the form of tagging on social media. As it was pointed out by Troy Tuberville in his “Ville on the Ville” blog post this was the first time that had happened since the disassociation went into effect potentially indicating Louisville wasn’t backing down from the NCAA.

With a little less than a year remaining on the “punishment,” now is the time for the powers that be to stand up and make a statement that they were wrong.

Much like how Reggie Bush was “welcomed home” by Louisville, it’s time for the NCAA to repeal the punishment to Harrell and his former teammates. Stop being soft @NCAA.