The Lance Thomas Jewelry Vigil

[dukelion]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...100000-jewelry

[CLW]

Saw this on ESPN sad news and I'm sure the haters are going to want a full blown investigation as to how Lance came up with $30K as a college senior as a down payment on $100K in jewelry.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/conversations...100000-jewelry

[Li_Duke]

ESPN article says Lance Thomas purchased almost a hundred grand worth of jewelry his senior year, plopped down a $30k in down-payment, but then didn't pay the rest of the balance (which was extended to his on credit).

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...100000-jewelry

Comes as a bit of a surprise to me. 30 grand is a lot of cash for a college student. 100 grand is a big purchase for a guy not guaranteed to make the pros.

[Li_Duke]

Someone else started a thread just before me. You can delete this one.

[Li_Duke]

Saw this on ESPN sad news and I'm sure the haters are going to want a full blown investigation as to how Lance came up with $30K as a college senior as a down payment on $100K in jewelry.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/conversations...100000-jewelry

I'm not a hater, but I'm definitely curious. $30k is a LOT of money! It says his mom is a car plant manager, but I'd imagine that's a lot of money even for her. Also odd to me as he wasn't guaranteed to make it to the NBA.

[hudlow]

Maybe he was blackmailing Julius Peppers...

[CampbellBlueDevil]

Yeah this is really strange. Lance wasn't even the caliber of playing that one would even pay to play. Yeah he was good, but not the type of player such as Anthony Davis or Shabazz.

[johnb]

... 30 grand is a lot of cash for a college student. 100 grand is a big purchase for a guy not guaranteed to make the pros.

I'm hoping his mother cashed out her 529 college savings plan and that he spent it as he saw fit (diamonds in the shape of Jesus, anyone?). I'm most concerned about the possible investigation but most puzzled that any senior at Duke would think that buying $100,000 in jewelry would be a wise decision.

[Jim3k]

One possibility is that things are not what they seem. The suit makes some allegations, but even if Lance bought some jewelry, it seems unlikely that the price was even $30,000. Maybe $3 thousand. But $100 K? Seems dubious to me. Who's going to lend $70,000 to a guy not projected to make the NBA?

Smell a scam anyone? An extortion?

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Wow! He bought the jewelry in December, 2009, before (he and) Zoubs were made starters and good things started to happen on the court. Hope this doesn't cost us the banner...

[moonpie23]

i just threw up some in my mouth.......man...i hope that doesn't turn out to be what it appears to be....

[TKG]

To the leadership at the University: please be thorough and transparent in your investigation.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

To the leadership at the University: please be thorough and transparent in your investigation.

One thing that has been clear, from Watergate to Sandusky to Wienergate, the coverup (and punishment for it) is worse than the crime.

[savekyriestoe]

Even if it's an agent that gave Lance the $30K for a down payment and not Duke, which seems likely, the banner's gone, right?

[miltk]

Yeah this is really strange. Lance wasn't even the caliber of playing that one would even pay to play. Yeah he was good, but not the type of player such as Anthony Davis or Shabazz.

thomas is in the nba and highly sought after in high school. nuff said. rationalizing doesn't work.

[jafarr1]

One thing that has been clear, from Watergate to Sandusky to Wienergate, the coverup (and punishment for it) is worse than the crime.

I'm not advocating that Duke be anything but transparent during all of this, but recent NCAA punishments have shown that transparency leads to stronger punishment. It's one of the NCAA's many failings.

[savekyriestoe]

According to these Dan Wetzel tweets, here and here, even if Lance legitimately had the $30K, he could still be guilty for receiving credit based on expected future earnings.

@DanWetzel:

As I understand NCAA rules, issue for Duke isn't necessarily that Lance Thomas had $30,000 to put down payment on jewelry (might be fine)... it would be if he received $67,800 credit based on expected future basketball earnings. NCAA prohibits that. Going to be interesting

[TKG]

Even if it's an agent that gave Lance the $30K for a down payment and not Duke, which seems likely, the banner's gone, right?

If proven to be true, in addition to the title being vacated, I would think the wins would be removed from K 's career stats as well.

[moonpie23]

we don't have all the facts....just the lawsuit....

considering that lance is making plenty of $$ in the nba to take care of this debt, does it seem right that he would allow this issue to come to duke over 67K?

sick to my stomach...

[savekyriestoe]

Also, I preferred the original title (Lance Thomas what the heck??!!!) to this thread.