KRON, Ohio -- The NCAA sends representatives to monitor various July events, and because the LeBron James Skills Academy is the event with the best prospects and most high-profile coaches, there are two members of the Basketball Focus Group at the University of Akron.
They're here to make sure the coaches stay where they're supposed to stay and the prospects stay where they're supposed to stay, and they do a fine job of it. But here's the issue: They can't quite figure out what to do with William Wesley -- the man more commonly known as "Worldwide Wes" -- who basically has the run of the place.
Wesley is a longtime and well-documented power-broker who now works with Creative Arts Agency (CAA). And even though people associated with agents are supposed to be nowhere close to players at an event like this, Wesley has spent the better part of tonight sitting in a chair on the court around Kentucky freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Gilchrist, and within talking and bumping distance of every high-school prospect in attendance.
Nike officials allow it to happen.
So it happens.
And Wesley must know just how much it agitates the NCAA. For proof, consider that I was standing with the two NCAA officials earlier tonight, just talking and catching up when we were suddenly interrupted by a young man who tapped one of the NCAA officials on the shoulder.
"Excuse me," the young man said. "Wes wanted me to tell you hello."
On one hand, troubling.
On the other, absolutely hilarious.
