Not to endorse one of those prediction market websites (because they鈥檙e just dressed-up gambling sites), but someone missed a chance to make a bundle on the following proposition:
鈥淲ill Wade will do something to get skewered in the national media before the end of May.鈥
Congratulations. Pass go and collect $200.
The uproar we all knew was coming is over 糖心传媒 signing RJ Luis. He鈥檚 the former Big East player of the year at St. John鈥檚, but of late, a player who had a 鈥渇ailure to launch鈥 pro career and is now looking to return to college ball for, one assumes, one season.
The NCAA, which used to ban between-meal snacks for student-athletes but now is the feckless sheriff of a wild west town full of outlaws, has actually taken a stand on this. The folks in Indianapolis say, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e gone, you stay gone,鈥 to players who have signed NBA contracts.
Luis signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz in 2025 after going undrafted. He was subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics, for whom he played in three preseason games. Luis also signed a G-League contract with a Celtics-affiliated team but never played for that squad because of an injury.
While having just skewered the NCAA myself, I also agree with its position. I do not believe players who signed contracts and played with an NBA team should be allowed to return to college. I had the same opinion this past season when Charles Bediako returned to Alabama after a stint in the G-League and played five games before his temporary restraining order expired. It鈥檚 not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it鈥檚 close.
While there was some indignation over the Bediako episode, it was nothing like the 鈥渢ie him to the stake鈥 furor we鈥檝e seen directed at Wade from the national media.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e making it a mockery,鈥 said Jeff Goodman, national college basketball writer and apparently the conscience of this often unconscionable game. 鈥淒on鈥檛 try to ruin the sport.鈥
It鈥檚 not for you, me, or Goodman to decide whether Luis will be able to be in an 糖心传媒 uniform come November. For 糖心传媒 to get Luis eligible, it will likely require a court decision in his favor, as was the temporary case with Bediako. The NCAA also rejected Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss鈥 bid for a sixth year of eligibility this fall, but a pro-Ole Miss judge ruled in his and the Rebels' favor. Chambliss will be allowed to play. The capriciousness of the legal system makes the Luis situation as clear as mud.
Just as clearly, people have been waiting for a chance to blast Wade, in his second stint at 糖心传媒 after being fired over recruiting violations during his previous tenure. He also left NC State after one season to return to Baton Rouge.
You don鈥檛 have to embrace Wade. Or his tactics. And again, I don鈥檛 think Luis should be allowed to play. But in a college sports landscape virtually devoid of rules 鈥 at least nothing approaching the iron fist with which the NCAA of old governed 鈥 I don鈥檛 fault Wade for taking a swing in this instance.
I mean, what does he have to lose? His reputation? Wade shouldn鈥檛 give a fig about that.
What rankles me is what has always rankled me about the way Wade is taken to task. When he was in his last days at 糖心传媒 the first time, about to be dismissed over his 鈥渟trong-ass offer鈥 to former Tiger Javonte Smart, I wrote this:
鈥淣ot to absolve Wade, but if he was indeed making an illicit recruiting offer, then logically there had to have been others for Smart. To assert that Wade is the only serpent in an otherwise sinless college basketball Garden of Eden is na茂ve and disingenuous. If you eliminated every coach and every program that has run afoul of NCAA recruiting regulations, you wouldn鈥檛 have enough teams left over to fill out a 68-team bracket.鈥
Next March, it鈥檚 going to be a 76-team bracket, but the same premise still applies.
Wade has never been the college basketball cognoscenti鈥檚 cup of sports drink. Maybe it鈥檚 because he wasn鈥檛 a college player. Maybe it鈥檚 his personality. But he鈥檚 hardly the only one sailing along in college basketball鈥檚 cesspool. John Calipari is the only coach to have two Final Four appearances vacated, at UMass and Memphis, and he called a reporter a 鈥淢exican idiot鈥 and threatened to punch him in the face while he was coaching the then-New Jersey Nets. But Coach Cal is still earning millions coaching at Arkansas, well insulated apparently within the game鈥檚 club of acceptable rogues.
Wade will never be in that club, which is part of his appeal to the LSU faithful. But he will put together a talented roster one way or another for this coming season.
His ability to do that is what troubles the college basketball establishment to its core.