When this news story came over the Associated Press “wires” on April 28, 2022, I can’t say I was surprised so much as saddened.
For quite some time, I have been “knocking on the NBA door” asking to approach the league about ethics training. The polite answer is typically “We take care of training in-house.” While I’ve no doubt that someone from the front-offices of the teams’ drones on about “expectations,” it is often a dismal failure.
Case in point
Kenyon Dooling may not be a household name to most NBA fans, but he is emblematic of a league that has recently cared more about appearance than substance.
Dooling served as former vice president of the NBPA (the National Basketball Players Association). He was a union officer for eight years and was its first vice president. He was just arrested for defrauding the league’s benefit plan. He was not alone. The indictments in this fraud case include 18 (I’ll let that number sink in) former NBA players who stole millions from the health and welfare plan. So, where was the ethical training for these 18 players plus the first vice president of the NBPA?
Combined, the former players took about $2.5 million from the plan.
Of course, Dooling was not just a union representative but when arrested, he was an assistant coach of an NBA organization and was himself a player for 13 seasons with several teams. So, where was his ethical training? The answer I would offer was that it was non-existent or so pandering and tepid, it essentially did not exist.
And, I get that in the NBA it is about production and numbers and wins. Guess what folks? I can say that about any executive or worker in any organization anywhere. On that note, I have conducted ethical training to virtually every group in every industry the world over. Why should professional basketball be an exception?
When Dooling got busted, he was with the Utah Jazz. The Jazz reacted to the press in the following neutral manner:
“It is a case concerning his time at the National Basketball Players Association, prior to him joining our organization. He has been put on paid administrative leave. Due to the ongoing legal process, we will refrain from further comment.”
All kinds of unethical behavior
Amazingly, Dooling was the NBPA “wellness counselor for the union.” He put himself out there to oversee players in terms of their physical and mental health.
He recruited other players to join in the fraud which was, unbelievably orchestrated by a physician and a dentist. Dooling and his co-conspirators falsified claims to the union ranging anywhere from about $65,000 up to $420,000. Dooling, who theoretically had a net worth of between $2.5 million and $5 million, pocketed $350,000 from the false claims he submitted to the union.
None of my business perhaps, but Kenyon Dooling, though a journeyman, played in the league for 13 years. His average net salary was $1.5 million. A damn good salary by any standard. He burned through a lot of money. In his greed, he took funds away from ex-players who actually needed it.
In 2014, Kenyon Dooling wrote a book about his stress and mental illness and he blamed it on an abusive childhood. I am not here to argue his trauma, that would be unfair, but at some point the ethical thing to do is to take ownership. He will now have no choice.
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