Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Why are we focused on Fab Melo’s academics?

Fab Melo, Stephen Pagliuca, Jared Sullinger

Boston Celtics 2012 draft pick center Fab Melo shakes a hand as Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca, rear left, and draft pick forward Jared Sullinger watch during an introductory NBA basketball news conference in Boston on Monday, July 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

AP

It’s far from a secret for college basketball fans that Fab Melo had a tough time academically during his sophomore season at Syracuse.

In January, he was suspended for three games -- including the Orange’s first loss of the season to Notre Dame -- for an academic issue, one that reared its ugly head again in March, which is why Melo sat out the NCAA tournament.

And, as you might expect, the rookie has been hearing it from seemingly everyone in Boston. According to this report from ESPN Boston, Celtic GM Danny Ainge asked Melo if his business advisor Rodrigo was also his academic advisor. Head coach Doc Rivers said on ESPN Radio interview with Mike Lupica that “We have no tests” and that “we’re going to introduce you tomorrow and we’re going to do a Read to Achieve thing (with young students). Are you OK with that?”

Hilarious if you ask me.

I can’t wait to hear what Kevin Garnett has to say to Melo if he shows up late for practice or forget what he’s supposed to do on a specific play.

To his credit, Melo seems to be taking the ribbing in stride.

“It’s not a concern at all,” Melo said of his academic record. “I did what I had to do on the basketball court, my responsibilities, stuff like that. I did. I struggled with the school. And I don’t have to go to class now, so that’s something coach or the coaching staff won’t have to worry about.”

At this point, you have to hope that Melo’s career pans out. As Orange Fizz put it, “dumb and proud of it is no way to go through life.”

The irony here is that Melo’s academic record would be the second biggest concern I have about him as a prospect. No one seems particularly concerned about the fact that Melo had a “volatile relationship” with his girlfriend in college, one in which he was “physically violent four or five times” and resulted in his getting arrested. The episode seems quite disturbing:

About 9 a.m. on May 30, she and Melo got into an argument over a phone call she received from a male friend. Melo demanded she call back the male and tell him that she did not want to talk with him anymore because she was dating Melo.

She said she called and told the man she couldn’t hang out with him anymore. Melo became mad, she said, because she didn’t make it sound like she was voluntarily calling off the communication.

Later in the day, she told police it appeared that Melo had calmed down. About 1:40 p.m., in Melo’s apartment, he was showing her pictures using his MacBook computer. He asked her if he could see her Facebook wall. She said she agreed providing that Melo not get angry at what he reads.

Melo became angry after reading two comments from two different men on the Facebook wall, she said. Melo threw down his computer on the floor, damaging it. As soon as he realized he had damaged it, he began throwing it against the walls.

She went to the apartment’s bathroom and shut the door. She soon left the bathroom, grabbed her belongings and left the apartment. She was in her car when Melo came out of the apartment, picked up some dirt and threw it on her. Melo walked behind the car and demanded she open the trunk.

She refused.

Melo approached the driver’s side, reached in the window and snapped off the turn signal control arm, which also controlled the car’s wipers and high beams.

She noticed Melo was bleeding from the hand.

“Here, you want my blood,” she quoted Melo as saying as he smeared blood on her shirt.


But you’re right. Bad grades are a much bigger issue.