A story has been unfolding in Champaign in recent months about the most mysterious and most powerful man in the sport of basketball. His name is William Wesley, but you may or may not know him as Worldwide Wes. If you don’t know who he is, it’s OK. I didn’t know either until a month ago.

My interest in Worldwide Wes began in February when I wrote a column about why Kelvin Sampson deserved to be fired (writers note: The next day the NCAA announced it would investigate Sampson, and a week later, he was in fact fired). Thinking that I would get only positive support from my Illinois readers, I happily went to check my comments on the DailyIllini.com.

Then reality sunk in.

There were dozens of comments about how Sampson was the best coach of all time. Hoosiers had found my column.

Through the wreckage, I found a couple interesting comments mentioning this man named Worldwide Wes – and that he is connected to the University of Illinois men’s basketball team.

The thing about William Wesley is: No one knows exactly what he even does. What people do know is that he connects people with other people. How you ask? Because he knows everyone involved with the sport of basketball – from NBA owners to shoe company executives.

In essence, Worldwide Wes may meet an AAU player and show him the ropes, help him find the best prep school opportunities, put him in touch with the college program that will best accentuate his skills for the NBA, place him in touch with the best agents, all while working on his first shoe deal.

So when you actually start to grasp what he does, the first question that comes to mind is: “Does this break any NCAA rules?” At this point, no one has been really able to prove that Wes accepts any money for what he does or promises any luxuries for students while they are still amateur athletes. So for all intents and purposes, Wes does nothing more than act as a self-described “Uncle” to the players he guides.

The next question is: “Why is Worldwide Wes starting to show up to more and more Illinois basketball games? Is this man, the most powerful man in basketball, for hire? Maybe the best, yet most elusive answer to that question comes from a GQ article that said, “Working for nobody allows him to work for everybody.”

Worldwide Wes does not work for the University, but he is reported to be good friends with Deron Williams, Michael Jordan and Illinois assistant coach Jerrance Howard.

These strong connections with Illinois may make Worldwide Wes a goodwill ambassador to University of Illinois, the same way he has been to the University of Memphis and John Calipari for years.

A lot of people already feel Wes has had an influence on Illinois. If you look at the Illini’s recruiting classes in the near future, you’ll understand why.

Just as fans were beginning to worry that Bruce Weber would never bring in top high school talent, four and five star players, including Jereme Richmond, Joseph Bertrand and DJ Richardson, began to pour in once again for the Illini. So like I mentioned, it doesn’t seem like anything he does violates NCAA rules. But just because you don’t break a rule, does not mean that it is ethical.

It’s not so much that I think what he does is wrong. He builds trust with others and is able to guide and introduce people to other people. That seems like little more than networking. But by starting with children at age 12 during AAU tournaments and offering them the chance to meet Lebron James, Allen Iverson and other NBA superstars, it is almost as if he is the stranger luring them into his van with candy.

I mean come on, at age 12 even my life goals still included being an All-Star in the NBA. If someone had promised to introduce me to all my NBA heroes, I would run to him, jump in the van and drive off wherever he wanted to go without even turning to wave goodbye to my parents.

To use another analogy, this seems like the basketball mafia. Worldwide Wes, the godfather, takes you under his wing. But if he does all this for you, and gets you a job in the NBA, then he expects you to do something for him in return – grant him access so that the process can keep repeating itself.

Things get mighty sticky when you think about the implications of this. Though Worldwide Wes may indeed have the best of intentions, what happens when copycats start gaining clout, but their morals aren’t as pure? Then this situation, already teetering on the edge of ethicality, becomes an ugly scandal.

In the mean time, keep your eyes and ears open to the most powerful, yet covert, man in all of basketball: William Wesley.

Kevin Spitz is a senior in Engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].