Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebel star needlessly deceptive

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at 259-4084 or juipe@ lasvegassun.com

It wasn't just a bluff.

It was a lie.

Plain and simple, Shawn Marion lied back on March 8 when he told a local TV reporter -- with cameras rolling -- that he would be returning to UNLV for his senior season next fall. If they go back and take a closer look, it should be right there on the tape: Marion's nose growing longer and longer and to fairy-tale proportions as he knowingly misled not only the reporter but the school and community.

He knew he wasn't coming back to the Rebels and, having written as much even after his Pinochio-like statement in early March, it certainly comes as no surprise now that Marion will formally announce he's leaving the team today.

He's going to the National Basketball Association.

Ordinarily an exclamation point might accompany that latter line, at least implicitly. But not anymore, not in this case, not after he used UNLV and didn't respect its coaches or fans.

At the time of his emphatic if erroneous remark, Marion may have felt besieged by the media and its questions about his future. But what he should have done and what he did are two different things.

What he should have done is say "I really don't know what I'm going to do, but give me some time and space to sort through this and I'll call each of you individually on the day I make up my mind."

Instead, in a fairly obvious ploy designed to end the questions while disguising the truth, Marion said he definitely would be back and UNLV fans breathed a huge sigh of relief.

He is, after all, the team's best player. Or was its best player.

Now he's gone and his departure leaves something of a sorry aftertaste, primarily because of the way he handled the situation. In all probability, he knew he was leaving the team back in March but he was waiting for confirmation -- via an agent or some other source -- that he would be an NBA lottery pick or at least an upper-level draft choice.

Apparently he has since received that confirmation.

There's another aspect or two that are equally disturbing about all this. One is Marion's role as a central figure in the ongoing NCAA investigation into the UNLV basketball program, and, two, the fact that he is departing, rather sullenly it seems, like so many other once-loved Rebels.

Some may wonder if the NCAA's appearance in town hastened Marion's exit, and maybe it did. Why stay if the program is at risk of some sort of NCAA penalty?

But if that's the reason behind Marion's decision to leave, let's see if he owns up to it at this afternoon's press conference. Anyone want that bet?

Nah, he's gone and he leaves behind a program in disarray, plus the possibility he contributed to even greater problems that won't emerge until the NCAA completes its inquiry.

And while he seems like a fairly likable guy, now it's easy to lump him into a group of fellow ex-Rebels who took from the community but never really gave. How about some sort of contribution -- financial or otherwise -- from this soon-to-become millionaire to the university or city's athletic programs for the support he received while playing here?

Yes, Marion's entitled to do what he pleases with his life and, yes, this critique of him comes across as unflattering if not bitter.

But it's only that way because he made it that way.

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