I'd rather read the 1974 Time magazine story where the author says Gilbert will negotiate Bill walton's NBA contract when the time comes but like with every other player, Gilbert won't take a percentage. he's not a lawyer, he's just a rich guy who thinks athletes get screwed in their pro contracts so he helps local kids negotiated theirs. he did lew Alcindor's deal, he also did the first deal for OJ Simpson, Sam was a USC football booster before he was involved with UCLA basketball. People act like Gilbert is a secret, Time magazine did a story on him in 1974.
As with all Gilbert articles these days Doyel has some facts and a lot of innuendo(most of which is in Jerry tarkanian's book). He says UCLA never won until Gilbert got involved, that's not true, UCLA had 3 titles before Sam got involved, that's a point all agree on. Sam got involved because Willie Naulls an ex UCLA player and assistant coach brought 2 sophs at UCLA who were unhappy with Wooden because they felt he was unbending and both being black they felt Wooden didn't understand their need to be individuals. those 2 sophs were Lew Alcindor and Lucius Allen and the year was 1968 after their soph years. Everyone agrees that's when Sam became involved as more than a fan. Naulls knew Sam was a big fan and felt he could help convince the 2 sophs to give Wooden a chance. Back then freshmen couldn't play so they were sophs but had played only one year for Wooden, they won a title, but felt Wooden was too structured, he even told UCLA players how to correctly tie their shoes to avoid injuries for example. naulls, who is black, said Gilbert was able to convince them it wasn't a racial thing, wooden treated everyone that way, for example Gavin Smith, a white player, left UCLA for that very reason, went to Hawaii, and led the nation in scoring. Paul Westphal picked USC for that reason too.
So UCLA had 3 titles before Sam went from fan to booster. sam didn't take money for his contract help so he wasn't paying guys in college to be their agent as a pro as Doyel suggests. In fact back then there essentially weren't any NBA agents, the NBA didn't require agents be certified by the NBA so players either hired a lawyer or did their own contract. that's why Gilbert felt they were being screwed.
He broke rules for sure, and most other schools had boosters doing the same thing. But UCLA won 3 titles before him, and wooden retired in 75, Gilbert was banned from UCLA after the 1981 season, UCLA didn't win a title after Wooden until 95. how come from 76 through 81 the guys who came after Wooden couldn't win with Gilbert doing the same thing for them? maybe Wooden's coaching actually DID have something to do with how good UCLA was?
Doyel is picking up where Wetzel left off a few years ago have some facts right and have a bunch of innuendo that gets worse every year. Gilbert paid for one abortion, he co signed one players car loan, both were cited as violations by the NCAA after the 1981 season when UCLA went on probation. Most of the problem was from Larry Brown's time as coach and the main guy was not gilbert, but a LA area car dealer who was giving players sweet deals on cars letting them use future NBA earnings as collateral, an NCAA violation. the LA Times busted the story and Brown, as always, left to avoid the blame while UCLA went on probation. The investigation dug up 4-5 old violations from Gilbert's time.
