Father's bad choices reflecting on son's future
April 8, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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Kenneth Azubuike reports to jail next week for perpetrating outrageous levels of fraud, but his son also will pay for those sins.
The Wildcats fell short in the regional final vs. Michigan State. (Getty Images)
The son is Kentucky junior Kelenna Azubuike, who will never be a Kentucky senior because he has entered the 2005 NBA Draft and signed with an agent. Whether he admits it or not -- and right now, he's not -- Azubuike did it for his father, whose sentence for fraud includes a four-year prison term and more than $330,000 in fines and restitution.
Thanks, Dad.
Kenneth Azubuike needs money. Kelenna Azubuike can get some quickly -- by signing with an agent, for starters. The agent can float Azubuike a loan based on his future earnings. There's plenty of money to be made overseas, which is where Azubuike will play next season.
Azubuike is a first-round pick only if the 2005 NBA Draft includes a height restriction. If the draft were open only to players 6-feet-5 and under, Azubuike might be drafted in the first round. Might be. Not sure.
The 6-5, 210-pound Azubuike is a nice young man -- a really, really nice young man -- who has an NBA body but lacks NBA intensity. He also lacks the ability to dribble from Point A to Point B. His jump shot, his best attribute, is pretty good for the SEC level ... and pretty bad for the NBA level. This is a nice kid who was a nice college player who will have to learn how to say "nice" in another language, because if his goal is to make money as a basketball player, he won't live again in the United States until he retires.
I don't blame Kelenna Azubuike. In fact, part of me applauds him. Talk about a good son -- look at what he's leaving behind, all for the sake of his father. He's a year from graduation. He's a year from perhaps, but only perhaps, playing his way into a guaranteed first-round contract in the 2006 NBA Draft. He has one last year of college life, and can life get much better than to be the leading scorer on the men's basketball team at Kentucky? Next season, with Azubuike, the Wildcats would have been among the leading Final Four candidates.
Kelenna Azubuike gave all that away.
Shame on you, Kenneth Azubuike.
In a statement announcing his decision to throw away his last year of college, Kelenna Azubuike tried -- nobly -- to take credit for this horrible decision.
"I know all the implications of signing with an agent," he said. "I believe I am ready and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get better before the draft. I want to make it clear that this is my decision, but my family is solidly behind me."
His family is solidly behind him, all right. Pushing with both hands.
Poor Kelenna. His rush to sign with an agent was basically a defense mechanism against anyone -- Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, NBA scouting guru Marty Blake, me -- telling him what a horrible, horrible decision he would be making by staying in the draft. By signing with an agent, see, Azubuike has no choice. He can't turn back now, even though he surely will learn in the coming weeks he has no chance to be drafted in the first round.
Azubuike averaged 14.7 points as a junior, but for the second consecutive season his shooting accuracy dipped on 3-pointers (down to 35.6 percent) and free throws (72.9 percent). This is the player whom Smith once noted "looks like Tarzan but plays like Jane" -- recognition that the rippling Azubuike looks much tougher than he actually is.
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Well, duh. Azubuike has been hearing stupid stuff all his life from his father, who was notorious on the recruiting trail for telling college coaches that Kelenna probably was going to enter the 2002 NBA Draft out of high school. Even then, see, Kenneth Azubuike was trying to get money from his son.
Is there any other way to look at this? When he announced the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Terence Kern reportedly called Kenneth Azubuike a "serial con man." According to the federal case against him, Kenneth Azubuike convinced people who thought they were his friends to make nearly $700,000 in bad investments. The elder Azubuike also tried to obtain roughly $500,000 in loans through fraudulent means.
All the while, Kenneth Azubuike was living the good life. Court records show he owned an expensive home in Lexington, Ky., and had three sport utility vehicles. He was sending two of his children to expensive, private schools and reportedly even depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into his bank account -- all the while being represented by a public defender and receiving federally sponsored health care.
Kenneth Azubuike was unemployed and presumably indigent.
Kenneth Azubuike was a liar. He was a thief. Worst of all, he was an awful father to a son who is, frankly, too good for him.
But not good enough for the NBA.
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