While eligible to play for Riverdale, Beasley and his team have run into problems with other rules of late. Maryland's rule forbidding member schools from playing teams with home-schoolers was unknown to most until earlier this month, when it was reported that several wrestling teams faced possible penalties for competing against home-schoolers in a tournament. Since then, Riverdale Baptist has had three options: cancel upcoming games against public schools, play without Beasley or enroll him in school so that he would be eligible to compete as a full-fledged student.
Wilson said canceling the games would be unfair to his other players, who still compose a top-notch team. Smith said her preference was to keep Beasley home-schooled.
Mike Beasley averages 16.9 points and 11.5 rebounds for Riverdale Baptist (17-2), one of the area's best teams.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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With Beasley sitting on the bench in street clothes, the Crusaders edged Suitland, 53-48, last Thursday. The Illinois High School Association followed the MPSSAA's lead in not allowing its members to play against home-schoolers, so he sat out again as Riverdale played in a Chicago tournament over the weekend, losing close games against two of that city's top teams.
"It bothers me a lot," Beasley said before sitting out last week's games. "But I'm not sour. I'm a team supporter. If I'm not playing, if I'm hurt, I'm going to be at games . . . on the bench, clapping and supporting my teammates."
Terrill, Wilson and Malone said they hope Beasley will succeed academically this school year and enroll as a full-time student at Riverdale in the fall. After that, Beasley said he thinks he should go to college for two years. He made an oral commitment to Charlotte last summer, but Fatima Smith, who learned of her son's commitment while scanning the Internet, expressed some doubt.
"It's not a commitment," Smith said. "He's 16 now. He doesn't know where he's going. . . . If he wants to say he's going to commit to them now, that's a verbal commitment; it's not something that is binding him. We'll look at our options and when the time comes we'll make a decision."
If Beasley goes to college, however, he may face new hurdles. His academic history and relationship with Malone almost certainly would be scrutinized by the NCAA, which has targeted unusual associations between summer coaches and players in recent years to determine if players were receiving improper extra benefits because of their athletic skills.
Beginning in the late 1990s, the NCAA began investigating these relationships out of concern that basketball standouts were receiving cash, gifts and other items that would violate the association's amateurism standards.
Several players, including two local players, were suspended by the NCAA. Johnson and former Temple center Kevin Lyde each were suspended for one game in 2000: Johnson for having part of his tuition at a prep school paid for by Malone and Lyde for having a high school summer school course paid for by Malone.
The NCAA generally considers benefits improper if they are received from a person with whom a player has a relationship solely because of his or her athletic ability.
"We're not paying for anything," Malone said. "His mother did the [school] registrations. He's only living with us because we live by Riverdale Baptist."
Beasley is aware of all the interest in his basketball ability. He said he knows outsiders try to get close to him to try to position themselves to cash in on his potential success and said he is careful about choosing his friends. Teammates, meantime, chatter about him walking across the Madison Square Garden stage and shaking NBA Commissioner David Stern's hand on draft night in June 2007.
If Beasley appears likely to be selected in the lottery portion of the draft after his senior year of high school, he almost certainly would have to go because of the potential to sign a guaranteed, multimillion dollar contract, his mother said. "You're not going to be an idiot," she said.
However, Smith said her focus is "stability" right now, as well as keeping up her son's grades and preparing him for the SAT. That's just fine with Beasley, who once feared the prospect of home schooling but now has accepted -- if not embraced -- it.
"I'm the only kid I know that can go to school in his pj's," Beasley said. "I don't have to iron a uniform. [I wear] whatever I've got on."
