Before Shaq, there was Shack. Maybe some of you out there are too young to remember him, but Charles Shackleford was a moderately famous NBA star at one time. A 6-11 big man out of NC State, Shackleford was best known for two things: a habit of occasionally racking up monster 20-rebound games, and his snowboard-like size-23s, which certainly rival the Hall-of-Fame-immortalized feet of Bob Lanier for the title of largest dogs in basketball history.
The problem was that trouble seemed to follow Shack wherever he went. In 1990, the NCAA ordered NC State to pay a $405,000 fine in response to the discovery that Shackleford had taken some $65,000 from two men while he was in school. Even worse, ABC News did a report claiming that, during the 1987-'88 season, Shackleford and as many as three other players were paid up to $1000 a game to shave points. One of the games in question was an 86-82 NC State win over Wake Forest. The Wolfpack was favored by 15; Wake covered partly because nothing-special center Ralph Kitley, who averaged six points a game that season, torched Shackleford for 22.
Three years ago, he was picked up in Johnson County, South Carolina, on weapons charges and for possession of weed and coke; the drug charges got dropped and he pleaded to the weapons counts.
And earlier this year, in Myrtle Beach, Shackleford was driving his Cadillac and rear-ended a couple in a Jeep. When police arrived at the scene and asked his name, Shackleford somewhat incredibly tried to tell them he was former Nets teammate Jayson Williams. Well, he might've been better off going with another ex-teammate, as Williams is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in connection with a shooting death at his house a few years back.
In any case, Shackleford is in trouble again. Just the other day he was arrested by for selling a bottle of 150 Lortabs to undercover cops in his hometown of Kinston, South Carolina. Apparently, the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office had been working on this case for some time. "Our narcotics people were working an investigation that involved controlled substances, specifically prescription drugs," a spokesman for the sheriff's office said. "It culminated today with the arrest of Mr. Shackleford."
It culminated in a bust for 150 pills? This is rapidly turning into the sports-crime trend of the year: full-blown undercover investigations aimed at catching some poor jock with a few pain pills in his pocket. First JaMarcus Russell, then this. Ridiculous, but give Shack 14 points.
More Dawg trouble
The hits just keep coming for the University of Georgia sports program.
We already reported the idiotic arrest of cornerback Jordan Love, who was hauled in by police for failing to disclose his middle name.
Well, the players aren't the only ones getting cuffed in Athens. Earlier this month, the school's athletic director, Damon Evans, was pulled over for a DUI. Hilariously, during that arrest, Evans pulled the Can't we settle this right here in Brainerd? routine, telling the arresting officer, "I am not trying to bribe you, but is there anything you can do without arresting me?" Just as hilariously, Evans had, between his legs, a pair of red panties belonging to a 28-year-old female passenger who was not his wife. The officer ignored pleas to take them to a motel and dragged Evans's ass in.
