The Sun-Times publishes another article going after Anthony Davis

UPDATE: Kentucky has put out a press release reaffirming their stance that the Chicago Sun-Times articles are completely incorrect. (Read the full press release here.)

Two things to note before we put this issue to rest for the weekend (hopefully):

• Kentucky doesn't necessarily refute the report. They denied that anyone in the athletic department offered Davis money, but the article doesn't necessarily claim that it was an athletic department member. A booster? A runner? All the article says is someone who wants Davis to go to UK.


• Michael O'Brien, the writer of these articles, does have some credibility on the Chicago prep scene. If you believe what Dan Wolken has to say, O'Brien had a big part of the story involving Derrick Rose and his SAT score, but sat on it because he couldn't verify it. So there's that.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times published a story that started a feeding frenzy.

In an article that claimed Anthony Davis had committed to Kentucky, Michael O'Brien -- who covers Chicago high school sports -- made a reference to a rumor that Davis was being paid $200,000 for his commitment to Kentucky. UK fans flipped out, Kentucky sent a letter to the Sun-Times threatening legal action, and the article was pulled with no mention of a retraction while a completely different article was posted. This puzzled some, but it seems to make a little more sense now.

The Sun-Times and Michael O'Brien are not backing off of their accusations. In an article published today, O'Brien did what he should have done in the first place -- make the accusation of Davis selling his commitment the centerpiece of his article. O'Brien is still making the claim that Kentucky and Davis negotiated a deal for $200,000 for Davis' commitment to UK, but now he is saying that he has sources at three different schools claiming that Davis Sr. asked for $125,000-$150,000.

After the first article, the question that everyone talked about was the journalism ethics of the Sun-Times and O'Brien. How could they publish such an inflammatory rumor? How could they put that claim in the ninth paragraph? Why is this getting published with so little being substantiated?

Now?

Now that question might shift.

Now will people be asking whether or not this is true?

Admittedly, after the first article was posted and the way that this story has come to be, some of the credibility of this outlet has taken a hit. But think about this -- the Sun-Times has taken quite a bit of heat already, Kentucky has already threatened legal action, and they still decided to go ahead and strengthen their claim that Kentucky paid Davis. Either they are confident in this story and in O'Brien's sources, or they are scrambling to cover their own asses. They still haven't addressed why the original has a piece pulled from it, or why it was then taken down all together.

Wednesday's mention easily could have been forgotten, written off as one of the thousands of rumors that float around these big time recruits that should never have been published. Today's article pretty much guarantees that Davis' collegiate career will always have a black cloud hanging above it.

Kentucky fans have been paranoid about the media coming after John Calipari, and maybe rightfully so, but if this article is true, then the media got him. Scandals in college athletics don't get much bigger than this. If Coach Cal bought a recruit, then that does away with his mystique as the world's best recruiter.

When Alex Rodriguez admitted using steroids, every stat that he put up throughout his career immediately became a question mark. How could we know exactly what homeruns were legitimate and what were tainted? The same thing with Calipari here. If he bought Davis, does that mean he bought Terrence Jones, or Enes Kanter, or Derrick Rose, or any of the other one-and-done recruits that have spent time under his wing?

I don't have the answer for that, but I can guarantee that question will be asked.

The Sun-Times has credibility issues right now. But this is still the Chicago Sun-Times. If they are moving forward with the story like this, after Wednesday's events, then they have to believe it.

Do you?