From: navarrer@bionette.CGRB.ORST.EDU (Roy Navarre)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Dale Brown vs Father Of The Bride
Date: 10 Apr 92 20:04:16 GMT
Organization: Biological Computing Consortium, OSU, Corvallis, OR.

In article <1992Apr10.141637.9790@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> peppler@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Randy Peppler) writes:
>In article <1992Apr9.192025.8822@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> gidi@Hilbert.Stanford.EDU (Gidi Avrahami) writes:
>>
>>Is anybody following the story of Shaquille's dad calling Dale Brown
>>``an untruthful man,'' and later apologizing?  Apparently Dale and Dad
>>have had different opinions on when to announce the Shaq's move to the
>>NBA, and whether or not Shaq has a contract with L.A. Gear, etc.
>>
>>Tune in tomorrow...
>
>	Yes it is, and here's something on it which is sort of funny, I
>	think:
>
>	NEW ORLEANS (UPI) -- Shaquille O'Neal's father criticized LSU coach
>Dale Brown Wednesday for saying that his son has been offered a $10
>million contract to endorse a brand of athletic shoes.
>	Sgt. Phillip Harrison, who serves in the U.S. Army in San Antonio,
>Texas, told the New Orleans Times Picayune that Brown ``is not a
>truthful man'' because ``we have no contract and no offer. We haven't
>even talked to anybody about shoes.''
>	Brown's assertion that L.A. Gear shoes had offered a four-year
>contract to O'Neal in return for his endorsement of the company's
>footwear was published in a San Antonio newspaper.
>	``I'm kind of disappointed, because I thought he (Brown) was the kind
>of person who wouldn't comment when he didn't have the facts,'' O'Neal
>said. ``But I'm not at LSU anymore. I'm looking forward. I'm not looking
>backward.''
>	The 7-foot-1, two-year All-America center announced last Friday he
>would skip his senior year of eligibility at LSU in order to play
>professional basketball.
>	O'Neal, his father and Brown were in Los Angeles Wednesday to attend
>a banquet. O'Neal was among finalists for the John Wooden Award,
>annually presented to the nation's outstanding basketball player. The
>award went to Duke's Christian Laettner.
>	Brown was unavailable for immediate comment about the sergeant's
>remarks, although Harrison confirmed that agent Leonard Armato of Los
>Angles, who has links with L.A. Gear, will be O'Neal's agent.
>	Harrison also criticized Brown's failure to keep quiet about the
>disclosure that O'Neal would move this year into the National Basketball
>Association.
>	``When Coach Brown came to my house on Sunday, we asked him not to
>reveal this information on Shaquille to anybody,'' Harrison said. ``We
>wanted to do this thing on Sunday between (Final Four) games on CBS.''
>	It was necessary for the family to change its plans and prematurely
>announce O'Neal's departure from LSU at the Friday news conference in
>San Antonio, Harrison said.
>	According to Harrison, Brown promised not to tell anyone about
>O'Neal's decision, but later told assistant coach Craig Carse, then met
>with team members about O'Neal's plans, which quickly leaked to sports
>reporters.
>	``And he said he wasn't even going to tell his wife,'' Harrison said.
>``He lied to me. Why did he lie to me? I never lied to him about
>anything. This is a bad situation. I'm not a vindictive person, but this
>is totally out of line.''
>	O'Neal was UPI's College Player of the Year in 1990-91.
>-- 
>-------------------------------
>| Randy Peppler               |
>| Illinois State Water Survey |
>| peppler@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu    |

This story has several inconsistencies. First there were no final 4 games
on Sunday.
Second Brown did not know Shaq was going to go pro after visitng the family.
Brown said before this flap, that he knew when Shaq gave him an extra long
hug after taking brown back to the airport and said " I love you coach"
that Then Brown knew "it was over.""It was over"

I think we have some rotten journalism here. Lets see what develops.
Keep us posted folks.
If you see something on this please post it. I find it hard to believe that
there are any hard feelings since Brown and the family were very close.
The previous poster said Harrison had apologized. Whats the deal?

Roy