By Richard Ray:
Mohamed Bamba is 18 years old and 7 foot tall. He has a wingspan of nearly 7’9″ and a standing reach of 9’6″. Keep in mind that the basket stands at 10′ 0″. He is ranked as the third best overall prospect in the ESPN class of 2017. The recent University of Texas commit appears to have a solid academic background as the Harlem native, via family from Ivory Coast, has been enrolled at private schools for the past five years, with the last three at The private boarding Westtown School in Pennsylvania.
Barring injury or the unlikelihood that he will be one of the all time busts, Mohamed is likely a NBA draft lottery pick and with the increased salary cap, reasonably stands to make well over $100 million in a 10 plus year NBA career. Of course none of this is yet guaranteed, but that is the likely projections for an athletic 7 footer with an incredible wingspan.
Well evidently Mohamed has a brother who couldn’t wait a year before showing his ass and he launched one of the all time premature and dumbest snitching campaigns of all time. Ibrahim Johnson made a nearly 23 minute video live on Facebook in which he attempted to air out dirty laundry concerning his brother with the explicit intent to end his opportunity to play basketball for the University of Texas.
The impetus behind Ibrahim’s snitching seems to be hurt feelings surrounding his brother and the perceived influence of a benefactor that he claims gave money to his brother consistently as well as other benefits that Ibrahim claims are in violation of NCAA rules. Ibrahim felt so strongly regarding the perceived slights he was receiving from his brother Mohamed that he announced he had actually called the NCAA to report the violations in hopes of having his brother declared ineligible and was supposed to have follow up conversations with the sanctioning body.
I don’t know where to start. This is Fredo 5.0.
For the full treacherous video hit the link https://www.facebook.com/ibrahim.johnson.5/videos/1509267002466218/ A summary in the meantime. Ibrahim claims that beside the improper benefits bestowed upon Mohamed by Greer Love, the financial adviser had also begun to assert undue influence on the basketball prodigy, in effect pitting him against his own family. Ibrahim felt the reason he was not accepted as a graduate student at the University of Texas to either play with his brother for a year or simply just be enrolled in the school was in part because of Greer Love’s influence. Ibrahim also claimed that Mohamed wanted neither him nor their mother with him in Texas. Additionally, Ibrahim had expressed an interest in becoming a player agent, presumably to represent his brother, and felt as if his plans were derailed by Greer’s influence and commitments to others.
Even if you accepted all of Ibrahim’s statement’s as fact, none of the decisions by Mohamed fall within the bounds of family betrayal. He is an eighteen year old kid. He is still broke and not in a position to financially take care of his family. He is essentially enrolling in a college until March, when if all goes well he will declare himself eligible for the draft and beginning the full time training for his professional career. I listened to his brother for 23 minutes. I do not know the man, but beside the snitching he did on Mohamed, he essentially dry snitched on himself, admitting to presently “doing things to support himself and his mom.” Though only 18 Mohamed should be commended for being mature enough to say no to family that would be an obvious distraction to the end goal that would conceivably be able to help them all long term.
Instead, all in his feelings, Ibrahim decided to try and hurt his younger brother. This will go down as one of the all time fails. NCAA violations are as easy to accumulate as traffic citations for driving while Black. Though I personally do not think that the actions Ibrahim described in the video itself fall within the bounds of an NCAA violation, I suspect that the University Of Texas will eventually suspend Mohamed in an overabundance of precaution. If in fact the financial advisor became a benefactor and family friend to Mohamed while still in grade school, gifts including cash would be permissible. However, there is no telling what additionally Ibrahim said behind closed doors. He is not alleging that the University of Texas did anything improper in its recruiting, but as opponents of the NCAA’s overreaching will attest, if the NCAA wants to rule an athlete ineligible they usually do and the resulting sanctions to the University may be too much to risk for a program that reasonably knows they will only have Mohamed for a year.
Even if he is ruled ineligible or suspended by the University of Texas, this will amount to a little more than a speed bump in the professional career Mohamed Bamba has the potential to have. Mohamed would have the opportunity to make money and play overseas for a year if college basketball is taken from him. His draft prospects will not suffer significantly. Next year at this time he should be a member of a NBA roster.
I would expect that his relationship with his brother is forever damaged. It is debatable as to the defined obligations that we have towards our families. Whether you are from the hood and viewed as the savior, or are just simply the most successful in the family, there are many varying opinions as to what if anything you are obligated to do for your family. I personally believe in helping family. The amounts that should be given are subjective and dependent on each situation. It is probably safe to say that no matter what one gives, there will always be someone who feels like it is not enough or slighted.
In this case the kid had not even made a dime yet. His brother snitched… actually trying to hurt the kid, based on projecting being financially slighted in the future. This is truly an all time fail. Snitching like this should never occur, but the fact that he played himself so tragically prior to the kid actually receiving an NBA check, might actually end up being a blessing in disguise. If this is his true character, the lesson while surely painful to Mohamed, was way less costly than had it occurred with NBA riches in place.
If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to enjoy others within diaryofamadmind.com
#MohamedBamba, #IbrahimJohnson, #NBA, #Snitching, #family, #fredo, #entitlement, #Godfather, #privilege, #FacebookLive, #UniversityofTexas, #NCAA,
