Nets minority owner Jay-Z is facing a bit of scrutiny after being caught congratulating University of Kentucky players in the locker room following their NCAA Tournament victory at the Prudential Center last week:
The hip-hop mogul’s visit was documented in photos and video showing him congratulating players in the Kentucky locker room, which happened to have been occupied by two potential lottery picks — Brandon Knight and Terrance Jones. As noted here, this offense would seem to be comparable to Celtics GM Danny Ainge sitting with Kevin Durant’s mother during the 2007 Big 12 tournament. Ainge was fined $30,000, a slap on the wrist in exchange for the opportunity to schmooze a top prospect’s mom. But given that standard, Jay-Z should be docked $30K for each college player who was in the locker room.
Of course the problem here is Jay-Z is connected to Kentucky coach John Calipari through the marketing company Worldwide Wes (the same company which was supposed to help Jay-Z lure LeBron, ‘Melo, etc to the Nets). The way I see it, after his three years in New Jersey, I think anyone from the Nets organization caught fraternizing with Calipari should be shot out of a canon, but then again, I’m just bitter about Calipari.
