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Bizarre goings-on at Chicago St.
Basketball coach Jones and his son pay the price when one of his players goes on a rampage. Jones is out of a job, his son beat up twice.
April 13, 2007
BY GREG COUCH gcouch@suntimes.com
Kevin Jones is out of work, fired as Chicago State's basketball coach. His son, Kevin Jr., who played for his dad, has rehab on his back one day, a court date the next, counseling after that.
He can't go into a room without making sure the door is locked. He can't get into the shower without creeping up on the curtain and making sure no one is in there already, waiting to beat him up.
He knows ex-teammate Camron Clay, who already allegedly beat him up twice, isn't going to be in his room. His brain tells him that. But he has to check anyway because the feeling is still there.
''Yeah,'' Jones Jr. said the other day while waiting for the judge to call his name at a far South Side courthouse. ''It's just like that.''
So the damage is clear, but the reason is not. Officially, Jones was fired without cause, which is Chicago State's way of working a loophole in Jones' contract that would allow it not to pay the final three years of the deal, worth $85,000 a year.
Without cause. Without reason.
''People don't know what really happened,'' Jones said. ''They think I'm a crazed coach who went after a player. That's not the case at all.
''I didn't do anything wrong, except recruiting that crazy Camron Clay, which cost me my job.''
It's impossible to get all the details because no one knows where Clay is and the school isn't talking. But according to Jones, witnesses and police, Clay flipped out in the locker room at Michigan State, tried to beat up Jones, went home and beat up Jones Jr. twice. And then the school suspended Jones and told him if he talked about this publicly, he'd be fired. So he kept his mouth shut, and then the school fired him anyway. Now Jones has no name, and his son is messed up.
And Chicago State decided not to pay him. For no reason. Jones has sued the school for his money, and Jones Jr. has sued it for failing to protect him from the second incident. . . . (read more)
Go State!
Bizarre goings-on at Chicago St.
Basketball coach Jones and his son pay the price when one of his players goes on a rampage. Jones is out of a job, his son beat up twice.
April 13, 2007
BY GREG COUCH gcouch@suntimes.com
Kevin Jones is out of work, fired as Chicago State's basketball coach. His son, Kevin Jr., who played for his dad, has rehab on his back one day, a court date the next, counseling after that.
He can't go into a room without making sure the door is locked. He can't get into the shower without creeping up on the curtain and making sure no one is in there already, waiting to beat him up.
He knows ex-teammate Camron Clay, who already allegedly beat him up twice, isn't going to be in his room. His brain tells him that. But he has to check anyway because the feeling is still there.
''Yeah,'' Jones Jr. said the other day while waiting for the judge to call his name at a far South Side courthouse. ''It's just like that.''
So the damage is clear, but the reason is not. Officially, Jones was fired without cause, which is Chicago State's way of working a loophole in Jones' contract that would allow it not to pay the final three years of the deal, worth $85,000 a year.
Without cause. Without reason.
''People don't know what really happened,'' Jones said. ''They think I'm a crazed coach who went after a player. That's not the case at all.
''I didn't do anything wrong, except recruiting that crazy Camron Clay, which cost me my job.''
It's impossible to get all the details because no one knows where Clay is and the school isn't talking. But according to Jones, witnesses and police, Clay flipped out in the locker room at Michigan State, tried to beat up Jones, went home and beat up Jones Jr. twice. And then the school suspended Jones and told him if he talked about this publicly, he'd be fired. So he kept his mouth shut, and then the school fired him anyway. Now Jones has no name, and his son is messed up.
And Chicago State decided not to pay him. For no reason. Jones has sued the school for his money, and Jones Jr. has sued it for failing to protect him from the second incident. . . . (read more)
Go State!
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