Shabazz Muhammad Has Been Lying To Us

If you follow college basketball and college recruiting, you know the stories and red flags that have been surrounding Shabazz Muhammad ever since he was in high school. From his bad body language to his disconnect with his teammates at UCLA, to his very controlling father. Well add another one to the board. In a recent interview Shabazz's father admitted that the family and Shabazz have been lying about his age and Shabazz is actually 20 years old, not 19 as he has claimed. His father claimed he held Bazz back a year to give him a competitive advantage over younger players and to make him stand out to scouts as a bugger and stronger player. 

I don't think this is a huge deal that he was held back, but it is a big deal that he lied and didn't tell scouts. Scouts thought they were watching a 19 year old play against his peers, when the whole time they were watching him they were watching an older player against younger guys. It makes it unclear where his talent level really is, and makes the scouting done on him foggy as well. This could also greatly effect his draft stock since he is a year older than other one and done players coming out to enter the draft this June. 

UCLA plays Minnesota tonight so if you want to see Shabazz in college this will probably be your last chance as Bazz and the rest of his team seem to have checked out for the year even during the Pac 12 tournament last week. To be honest the fact that Shabazz is a year older than he said isn't a huge shock, as he looks older than the other freshman in his class. To be honest Shabazz looks more like he is 35 than 20. Either way expect NBA teams to be weary of a player who lied about his age to everyone for the past ten years and expect them to be even more weary because Shabazz has been playing against younger competition his entire high school career which of course made him look like a much better player than he would be against level competition. Bazz has had a very disappointing year at UCLA and has also appeared to quit on his team. Any GM that drafts this guy will be drafting quite a headache for his franchise.