Derrick Rose’s brilliance in his MVP season and his career so far has dazzled fans. His speed and athleticism made him an instant hit the moment the Bulls drafted him first overall in the 2008 Draft. He was an instant favorite when he led Memphis to the national championship game.
While Rose has continued to dazzle in the NBA, Memphis fans and season ticket holders have a sour taste left in their mouth.
The NCAA stripped away Rose’s magical run to the NCAA championship after alleging and finding evidence that Rose had someone else take his SATs. Whether that happened or not, the validity of Rose’s score was cast into serious doubt and the NCAA took action in forcing the Tigers to vacate that memorable season. The scandal did not completely destroy the Memphis program — although Rose’s coach, John Calipari escaped to Kentucky unscathed.
Many have forgotten that Rose had some trouble early in his NBA career with this whole SAT business. It kind of went away as the school took the hit and all the involved parties seemingly got away without penalty.
That changed when three attorneys in Memphis prepared to file a lawsuit against Calipari, Rose and athletic director R.C. Johnson on behalf of undisclosed season ticket holders. Since the season never happened, it would make sense that they never bought any season tickets, right?
Well, we will never know. The potential lawsuit was settled, according to Kyle Veazey of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The Commercial Appeal reports Rose and Calipari were to donate a total of $100,000 to a scholarship fund. The two are supposed to split up the amount they donate amongst themselves. Calipari has donated a couple hundred thousand dollars already to Memphis as part of his deal to leave the Tigers for Lexington, Kentucky.
“The agreement said the unnamed season ticket holders believed that Calipari, Johnson and Rose were responsible for making their 2009-10 season tickets and future season tickets ‘potentially’ worth less than they had anticipated.”
Neither party had any comment on the agreement as part of the settlement’s confidentiality agreement.
This is not going to cut too deeply into Rose’s pockets. But after Roger Goodell suspended Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor for his college transgressions, fans of amateur sports will surely be happy to see some of these NCAA rules violators paying for their sins. Then again, another nice dunk, MVP award or Bull/adidas commercial from Rose and we will forget this whole thing ever happened.
