The Davis family to sue the Chicago Sun-Times

The gauntlet hath been thrown.

Late last night, an attorney for Anthony Davis, Sr., the father of prep star Anthony Davis, said that next week a lawsuit will be filed against both the Chicago Sun-Times and reporter Michael O'Brien.

Davis Sr.'s attorney, Georgette L. Greenlee, called the allegations "baseless" and said "this is defamation of character and very harmful."

"It boggles our mind where (O'Brien) got his information from," Greenlee told the Tribune on Friday. "We did advise (the Sun-Times) that publishing anything like the story they published today was going to put us in position to have to clarify and put the truth out and be litigious."

In case you have been living under a rock for the last three days, O'Brien is the writer that penned the article claiming Davis had committed to Kentucky on Wednesday. In that original article, he happened to mention a rumor that Davis was paid $200,000 to commit to the Wildcats. Kentucky threatened legal action, so the Sun-Times revised, and then removed, the article without any notice of retraction. Then Friday morning, O'Brien published a new article, claiming that he had three sources that said the Davis family was asking for $125,000-$150,000 for the services of their 6'10" son.

Now this is where it gets interesting. For the Sun-Times to run the story it did yesterday, they have to believe they have enough evidence to back up the claims. But Kentucky and the Davis family are willing to take legal action. Would they really want to take this case to court -- where a lot of information, some of which could be quite damaging to UK and/or Davis, can come out during the discovery process -- if there were backroom deals going on?

Who is telling the truth? Who is going to be the first to back down? Both sides can't be right.

One last thought: in the letter that Kentucky wrote to the Sun-Times, they said that they "fully supports any action the student-athlete and his family may take against Mr. O'Brien and the Chicago Sun-Times." Am I the only one that sees this as pretty good indicator that Davis is headed to Kentucky?