Where are they now? George Mason's 3 Stars

[Burn531]

Seeking Cinderella
By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
March 27, 2007

The phone line crackled with static. Lamar Butler's voice faded in and out.

"Can you hear me?" he said, his memory clearer than the overseas connection.

Butler was recounting a moment from George Mason's historic run to the 2006 Final Four, but not from the day he and his teammates upset Michigan State in the opening round, or the day the 11th-seeded Patriots stunned North Carolina and reached the Sweet 16, or the day they felled mighty Connecticut in the Elite Eight, then cut down the nets and captured the attention of the nation. No, this moment took place after the cheering stopped and the limelight began to fade.

It was about an hour after George Mason had lost to Florida in the national semifinals in Indianapolis, after the players had showered, changed clothes and dried their tears, and no one looked more despondent than Butler. He walked into the stands, found the section of George Mason faithful and trudged through the consoling fans before the assistant coach who recruited him to the school stopped him.

"Cheer up," Bill Courtney said. "You know how much money you made yourself?"

As this weekend's Final Four approaches – populated by heavyweights Florida, UCLA, Ohio State and Georgetown, none lower than a No. 2 seed – Butler can hear the words as if they're playing on a looped tape recording, with the volume cranked up as loud as Dick Vitale.

"YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MADE YOURSELF??!!"

Butler still isn't sure. Neither are Jai Lewis or Tony Skinn, the other departed seniors who helped turn an obscure basketball program into one that during the 2006 NCAA tournament generated more than $1 million in merchandise sales, more than $5 million that George Mason will share with other members of the Colonial Athletic Association and a ratings-friendly storyline for an event that nets the NCAA about $550 million a year thanks to its $6 billion, 11-year contract with CBS.

A year later, one thing is clear: the notion that Butler, Lewis and Skinn would get rich because they helped author one of greatest Cinderella stories in college basketball history is pure fairy tale.

The big payday never came – and likely never will – as they chase their hoop dreams overseas. They play for the likes of BK Prostejov of the Czech Republic, Maccabi Ironi Ramat-Gan of Israel and Clermont of France, and they make wages that are laughable by NBA standards.

Meanwhile, in Fairfax, Va., without the three Final Four leaders, George Mason still broke home attendance records this season. But the Patriots failed to win 10 conference games for the first time in more than a decade, faltered in the final minutes of the conference tournament championship game and failed to make the NCAA tournament or the NIT.

Butler, Lewis and Skinn tried to keep up with their alma mater while enduring their own struggles.

Lewis, the burly forward, is in Israel, where he walks into malls and sees 18-year-old kids toting M16 assault rifles. Skinn, the point guard, is in France with his third team in five months. Butler, the versatile shooting guard, is in the Czech Republic, where every morning and night he kneels by his bed in prayer and asks God to give him the strength to stick it out in a country he already threatened to leave.

"It's kind of hard going from one of the main players on the Final Four team to this, " said Butler, speaking from his apartment in the Czech Republic. "It hasn't been easy at all." It's been nothing short of emotional whiplash. After all, a year ago they were coming to terms with their instant fame and its purported financial impact.

After George Mason upset Michigan State in the opening round, the players signed countless autographs. The next day, the players discovered many of the items were for sale online, with an autographed ball listed for $300.

"That's when I realized maybe I should get a ball and get it signed and put it on eBay," Skinn said.

Instead the players made a pact: No more autographing items in bulk, especially if the person asking was an adult. But items kept ending up online, and eventually others profited from the team’s magical run.

Jim Larranaga, George Mason's head coach, got a five-year contract extension, a raise that doubled his base salary to $375,000 and a $100,000 bonus from what the school called "promotional considerations" during the Final Four. Tom O’Connor, the school's athletic director, got a five-year extension and a raise. So did George Mason’s president, Alan G. Merten, with the chairman of the school's board of trustees saying he pushed for the new contract in part because Merten's visibility during the Final Four made him an attractive candidate to other schools.

With people around them cashing in after the Final Four, Butler, Lewis and Skinn thought they saw an opportunity to do the same – and not just because the former George Mason assistant coach suggested as much.

Sports agents started calling. By the dozens. The players wondered how the agents got their phone numbers, but they didn't care. They were happy to be in demand.

And there was even better news: All three earned last-minute invitations to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, which features 64 of the country’s top college seniors and is played in front of scouts, NBA coaches and general managers. So three days after the loss to Florida, Butler, Lewis and Skinn went to Portsmouth, Va., as newly minted celebrities.

Their fame, they found, was fleeting. Here's a closer look at the disparate paths their careers have taken since.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=jo-georgemason032807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Burn531]

Part Two: Lamar Butler
By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
March 27, 2007

As soon as he arrived at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, Lamar Butler found himself stargazing.

Larry Bird? Elgin Baylor? Are you serious?

There they were, in the flesh, among the dozens of talent evaluators. During one of the scrimmages, Butler came out for a breather, took a seat at the end of the bench, looked to his right and did a double take.

It was the man whose silhouette serves as the NBA's logo, Hall of Famer Jerry West.

"I've got to shake your hand," Butler said, extending his own. "You're a legend."

West laughed, shook Butler's hand, and said, "Mr. S.I.,” – as some of Butler's friends called him since he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Butler began to wonder if things could get any better. They did.

Butler knew he wouldn't be among those taken in the NBA draft, that his only shot to make an NBA roster was as a free agent. That meant he needed to secure workouts with NBA teams by impressing them in Portsmouth.

When the camp ended, an adviser told Butler that five teams had expressed interest in bringing him in for a private workout.

Six weeks passed before Butler heard from just one team, the Washington Wizards. He arrived for an hour-long workout that included three other college seniors. When it was over, Butler said, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan pulled him aside.

"We want to send you to summer league," Butler recalled Jordan saying.

That meant he would be joining some of the players taken in the draft and other top young free agents in games watched by NBA scouts. He'd be a step closer to his dream and the big payoff.

Three days before the summer league started, the Wizards called back: They no longer had a spot for Butler. They'd decided to go in a different direction, and suddenly so did he.

His new agent began fielding offers from overseas teams. Two teams from Hungary called and offered $3,500 a month. The agent told him to hold out for no less than $7,000. A team from Poland offered $100,000 for the season, and Butler was ready to make Poland his home.

But the deal fell through. Weeks passed. Two more teams called and offered $3,500 a month. Stay patient, the agent told him, and finally BK Prostejov called, offered $8,000 a month and Butler signed the deal. Six months work would earn him $48,000, plus expenses – if he could make it through the season.

On his first trip to the grocery store in the Czech Republic, Butler couldn't make out the labels but had no trouble identifying things like a carton of milk. He just couldn't figure out why the milk was so strangely thick when he poured it over his cereal.

"You bought cat milk," a teammate informed him.

But that was the least of his concerns.

In Butler's second game, BK Prostejov played a team from Italy and Butler immediately recognized the point guard – Mateen Cleaves, who in 2000 led Michigan State to the national championship. The question was, would Cleaves recognize Butler?

"You didn't have to beat my Spartans," Cleaves said, referring to George Mason's victory in the first round of the 2006 tournament.

The two shared a laugh. Then Cleaves' team proceeded to blow out BK Prostejov, and Butler spent most of the game on the bench. Cleaves could see the frustration.

"Rookies don't get a lot of respect over here," Butler recalled Cleaves telling him. "Stick with it."

Languishing on the bench, Butler grew even more frustrated. When he flew home to Maryland for Christmas, he told his agent he wasn't going back. Fine, his agent said, but here was the deal: BK Prostejov refused to release Butler from his contract, so if Butler refused to go back, he'd have to give back all of the money he had made – $28,000.

Back to the Czech Republic he went.

In early March, he finally cracked the starting lineup, replacing a veteran and leading the team to two victories. Then his team lost two in a row. Though Butler retained the starting job, he wasn't sure where he stood. He said his goal was to make it through the season that ends in May, play as well as possible and collect the rest of his money.

His agent already was looking for a new team and Butler said he had no plans to return to BK Prostejov – nor any fantasies of going straight to the NBA.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=jo-georgemasonpagetwo032807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Burn531]

Part Three: Jai Lewis
By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
March 27, 2007

Even before Lewis arrived at Portsmouth, he had drawn interest from scouts. NFL scouts, that is.

Lewis, who at 6-foot-7 generally was considered too small to play his natural position of power forward in the NBA, intrigued those who had watched former college basketball stars like Antonio Gates and Marcus Pollard flourish in the NFL as tight ends. Lewis had played football in high school and wanted an opportunity to play it again.

The New York Giants gave him that chance.

Lewis signed a free-agent contract that included a $5,000 bonus and headed for the team's training camp. One night, he called Butler. Lewis told him the workouts started at 6 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m.

"Wow," Butler said. "You couldn't pay me to do that."

A few days later, Lewis called again.

"I can't do this no more," Butler recalled his former teammate saying.

Without explanation, the Giants announced that Lewis had left the team. A few weeks later, he found himself running four miles through the mountains of Bosnia and then practicing for another three hours. He'd signed a contract with KK Bosnia, a team that competes in the Adriatic League and has a training regimen that made Lewis long for NFL training camp.

But his contract for $8,000 a month provided incentive to stay.

"Make it through the first year on one team," his agent told him.

Lewis tried, but he lasted only six weeks. The team decided he was too small to play power forward, even in the European leagues, and released him from his contract. In October, shortly after returning to Maryland, Lewis was headed back overseas, this time to play for Maccabi Ironi Ramat-Gan in Israel.

He called Butler again.

"You got to check this out," Lewis said, directing him to YouTube. It was a video Lewis posted of himself dunking on some poor Israeli. Lewis, always on the portly side, looked lean and mean.

Despite safety concerns, Lewis said he felt at home in Israel, where no one asked him to run four miles through the mountains or work out from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lewis would say only that he makes more than $5,000 a month. He likes the Israelis, too – well, except for the basketball referees.

"They're horrible," he said. "It's like they never played basketball."

He said he has adjusted to the routine checkpoint stops and metal detector searches at the entry of most grocery stores and malls where security guards stay on the lookout for suicide bombers. He also has grown accustomed to watching the young soldiers carrying their rifles.

Upon turning 18, Israelis must serve in the Army, and Lewis said some of his teammates bring their M16s to practice.

"They say if they lose their weapon, they go from five years [of military service] to 10," Lewis said.

Ten years might seem like a long time, but Lewis could end up spending that much time playing basketball overseas and never make more than $100,000 per year. His agent is trying to get him a spot in the NBA summer league. But his only serious chance of making it big, or in the NBA, is if he proves he's big enough to play against the world's top power forwards as a member of one of the top European teams.

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog. Anything is possible as long as you keep working hard," Lewis said. "That's one thing the Final Four has taught me."

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=jo-georgemasonpagethree032807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Burn531]

Part Four: Tony Skinn
By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
March 28, 2007

In mid-July, when Lewis and Butler still were looking for teams, Tony Skinn already had signed a contract in France for about $10,000 a month. But trouble surfaced before he collected his first paycheck.

The team, Roanne, wanted him to report for camp in early August. But Skinn's girlfriend, Weyni Ghebremedhin, was pregnant with the couple's first child and expected to deliver in the middle of August. Team officials suggested Skinn report to training camp, fly back for the birth, then return to France.

Not a chance, said Skinn, who saw no point in leaving before his girlfriend had given birth. Son Isaiah was born Aug. 12, and Skinn reported to the team a week later. He lasted only one month. Roanne was expecting a pass-first guard, and Skinn was more of a shooter. His agent and the team worked out a settlement and Skinn returned to Virginia hoping to stay. He wanted to be with his girlfriend and son, so he looked into playing in the NBA development league.

Then he learned all rookies in the NBDL make just $12,000 per season, plus expenses – not the kind of salary that will cover the cost of diapers, formula and baby food. His agent found him a better-paying job with a team in Croatia, where bombed-out buildings stood in ruins, victims of the bloody war between the Bosnians and Serbs. Croatia had provided Bosnia with military support and drawn the enmity of the Serbs.

Though the war had ended 13 years ago, the rubble and the tension remained. When his team played a game in Serbia, a police escort met the bus at the border. In the smoke-filled arena, Skinn recalled, more than 100 armed guards circled the court as raucous fans whistled and jeered.

Duke-North Carolina, UCLA-USC, Michigan-Ohio State, those were friendly rivalries compared to the games between teams from Serbia and Croatia, with tension from past battlefield slaughters lingering on the basketball court.

Skinn could handle the tension. The more serious problem was his team, KK Split, fell two weeks behind on payments. Then four weeks, then six weeks.

He kept asking for his money. The team kept putting him off. This time there was no settlement.

Skinn left Croatia and returned to Virginia, but only briefly. His agent found him a job playing for another team in France. Though Skinn declined to say how much he's making, apparently it's enough to support his girlfriend and son. He brought them with him to France, where basketball no longer is all consuming.

Not with Isaiah around.

During one recent phone conversation, his whimpering son could be heard in the background.

"Hold on," he said.

"Do you need any help?" he asked. "Really. Do you need any help?"

His girlfriend was trying to quiet their son.

Then he resumed the phone conversation. "We've got to finish up here," he said.

Three teams in a matter of months. Traveling around Europe in hopes of one day making it in the NBA, but in need of making enough money to support his young family. No, this is not what he expected, said Skinn, who thought the Final Four might be his ticket to the NBA and a big payday.

"It definitely ran across our minds," Skinn said. "Then reality kicked in."

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=jo-georgemasonfour032807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Doug Collins]

Too bad Glory Road came out recently. They're gonna have to wait a couple of years before they can make their own movie.

[ManuMagic]

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