Louisville Recruiting, Ray Mernagh

BELLY OF THE BE-AST: SONNY VACCARO EDITION

The untold story of Sonny Vaccaro and Jeremy Tyler you need to know

by Ray Mernagh

As a 17-year-old football player he had plenty of major schools recruiting him. He ultimately decided on the University of Kentucky and was placed, by them, at a Junior College for a year. He had dreams, like any other youngster, for how his life would play out. Those dreams were no doubt enhanced by the chance to attend college — maybe it would result in playing some professional football or becoming a coach. Who knew? The future was the future and the young man couldn’t wait to make his way in the world, a world outside of the mills his father entered everyday in order to make a living in Trafford, Pennsylvania. Through football, he was going to get the chance to go to college, something that wouldn’t be possible without his talent on the gridiron. Then, during that year at Junior College, he got injured.

Suddenly Kentucky, along with all the other big schools, made it clear, through deafening silence, that he was no longer in their plans. Nope, now that he wasn’t the same player that excited them just a year earlier, the institutions of higher learning were uninterested in helping him attain a college education.

It appeared to be another case of a dream being shattered before it ever had a chance to begin… until, luckily for him, there was a coach at Youngstown State willing to take a chance on him. “If you’re anything like you were in high school,” Dwight ‘Dike’ Beede told him, “we’ll give you a chance.”

Once spring practice started it was obvious to everyone, including the kid, that he wasn’t near the same player he once was.

“I couldn’t run,” recalls the kid (now in his 60’s), “couldn’t play anymore, it was over for me as a football player.”

But Beede, being a man with a heart, couldn’t send the kid back to Trafford. It was decided he would stay on scholarship for four years and help assistant football coach Dom Roselli — who was the head basketball coach — recruit players for the Penguin’s hoop squad. Roselli liked his enthusiasm and thought he could sell kids on the idea of playing basketball for Youngstown State. Beede and Roselli unknowingly gave birth to arguably the biggest marketing genius of the last 100 years. “I never played one down for Youngstown State,” he says, “yet they honored a four year scholarship and as a result I grew up to be someone who I hope contributed to this world.”

And that, in a few paragraphs, is the beginning of the Sonny Vaccaro story. I think it’s an important piece of the Vaccaro puzzle and one that’s usually missing from any kind of background info that’s included in pieces written about him. Sure, the injury that ruined his football career is sometimes mentioned, but usually nothing is said about Beede and Roselli — the two men who looked out for him and put him in the best possible position to succeed later in life.

Unemployed for the last two years by his own choosing, Vaccaro finds himself in the eye of the storm over Jeremy Tyler’s decision to play professional basketball in Europe. Tyler is the second high school player in two years to choose a European vocation over NCAA basketball (Brandon Jennings went to Italy last season and will be a lottery pick in next month’s NBA draft). Both Jennings and Tyler are circumventing the ridiculous rule that’s tried to force basketball players to college for at least a year before being allowed to enter the NBA draft. The basketball glitterati that went apoplectic over Jennings’ decision last summer have now predicted the apocalypse over Tyler’s decision to not only forego college but — GASP! — skip his senior year of high school as well. Vaccaro is in the middle of it because any high school player that’s jumped straight to the professional ranks in the last 15 years has only done so after gathering information and advice from him.

The fact that Tyler and his family are being helped by Vaccaro should, based on the research, put minds at ease over their decision to go overseas. Put simply, Vaccaro’s track record in this particular area (advising high school kids going pro) is unmatched and without blemish. Contrary to the myth that continues to be held up as fact, kids coming out of high school are historically a sure thing and much more successful than draft picks out of college. Even players often criticized as having made a mistake by not going to college — Darius Miles and Kwame Brown come to mind — have had multiple NBA contracts and both made upwards of 40 million dollars (Brown is still earning). But the guys with Vaccaro in their corner always seem to do really well. So why the outcry?

Vaccaro isn’t making a dime from either Jennings or Tyler for his help, something that’s often been contested by some in basketball circles. “Everything I’ve ever been able to do the kids gave me — Everything — and I’ve done well, but I earned my money.” Then Vaccaro offers a hypothetical worth considering for all of his critics.

“But what if I was getting paid?” he asks, “how would that be any different from the coach that recruits a star player, wins, and then gets a million dollar raise or a new $3 million dollar contract?”

One way it would be different is that the players are getting compensated when Vaccaro helps them, while they get nothing (smile and wink) in the college ranks.

Coaches have been getting rich since Vaccaro started signing them to sneaker deals and later schools to apparel deals. A coach like Tom Crean is wealthy beyond his dreams and good for him. But how wealthy would Crean be if his Marquette assistant Dwayne Stephens hadn’t helped convince a kid named Dwyane Wade, who turned out to be one of the greatest players in the world, to come to campus once upon a time?

It appears that talents like Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler are increasingly aware of, and tiring of, a system that risks their future earnings on the chance they’ll stay injury free through a year of college (among other things).

Guys like Dick Vitale want Jeremy Tyler to enjoy being a kid and think it’s wrong to want the money sure to come to him in due time, sooner than the system in this country allows it. Vitale thinks Tyler should relax and be a kid, go to the prom, enjoy the best time of his life. Vitale wonders who’s advising him and what those advisors are thinking? Vitale’s biased though. He makes a TON of money screaming about kids like Jeremy Tyler on TV in the guise of broadcasting college basketball games. He pontificates about players wanting too much too soon yet raves about coaches who’s stock is going up baby (meaning they’re about to cash in even more). And he does all this while flying around the country in a private jet and doing every Hooters/Del Giorno commercial they offer him. Vitale also admits he doesn’t know much about Tyler’s situation. Here’s a little glimpse.

Tyler had a camera crew follow him for two years filming a documentary, he’s had a recruiting scandal at his school that resulted in him playing on a depleted team, and he’s already been to four proms. Tyler is looking forward to learning a new language and being able to work on his game for up to 8 hours a day (the NCAA only allows coach/player instruction for 20 hours a week during the season and restricts it incredibly in the off-season). Jeremy Tyler works out with European pros that told me he’s more than mature enough to handle things overseas. Tyler’s father is looking forward to his son getting taken down a peg or two in Europe, to him getting humbled. Tyler will get his diploma online through home-schooling before he even leaves for Europe. His options at this point?

“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” says Vaccaro, “Jeremy has interest from multiple teams in multiple countries and he’s going to make a wonderful choice because he has so many options.”

So Jeremy Tyler is going to be a professional at 17 and Sonny Vaccaro is going to help put him in the best possible position. I ask Vaccaro if he feels a kinship with all these kids like Jennings and Tyler because of the things he went through as a young man. If the influence of Beede and Roselli are still with him when he advises these young ballers?

“I’ll never forget Dom Roselli and Dike Beede saying ‘you’ve got four years,’” says Vaccaro. “I never could’ve done anything without them, now you tell me how do I walk away from that, but you see no one knows that, I mean… — Vaccaro pauses before uttering the last word with resignation in his voice — whatever.”

They know it now.

A full Q&A piece with Sonny Vaccaro will also be coming later this week to NBE Basketball Report.