Cade Cunningham Said He Decided To Stay At Oklahoma State Because Mike Boynton Was Willing To Let Him Do Whatever He Wanted ...Oh, And His Brother Is On Staff

[Source] - "At first it was tough because when they first made the ruling, all the emotions are running super high and so you want to explore all your options," he said. "After kind of settling down and really looking into everything, at the end of the day, Coach Boynton's who I wanted to play for."

"There's not a lot of coaches that would say, 'Do what you want to do, I'm going to help you if you want to leave,'" Cunningham said Wednesday.

"My brother has been one of my biggest influences in life," Cade Cunningham said. "He's been my biggest life coach besides my parents. So being around him for another year was super important to me, but I feel like him being there was just a cherry on top."

I'm absolutely fascinated by the Cade Cunningham story this season. For those that don't know, Cade Cunningham is the No. 1 recruit and college hoops who committed to Oklahoma State, then Oklahoma State got put on sanctions and no one knew what Cunningham was going to do before he re-committed. I've said from the get go that the sanctions Oklahoma State got put on make no goddamn sense and it's just standard NCAA fucking everything up. Just as a quick summary, they were put on a year postseason ban along with scholarship reductions and probations because Lamont Evans, a former assistant coach, took bribe money with the plan to steer kids like Jeffrey Carroll to a certain management company. Literally nothing that gave Oklahoma State an advantage. 

And now for the first time we really got to hear Cunningham talk about it all. The thing about Cunningham is the dude is super loyal. That's been something discussed about him for years now and Mike Boynton was the first coach to recruit and offer him when Boynton was an assistant coach. That always mattered for Cunningham and part of the reason as to why he even considered Oklahoma State let alone committed there.

And now here's where you can get your bag jokes in. Yes, Oklahoma State hired Cunningham's older brother last year to be an assistant coach. Did they likely overpay him? Yep. But this isn't even close to the first or last time a family member or former coach was hired with a big time recruit. It's just part of the game. I just personally love that he said it was the 'cherry on top.' Yeah, I'm sure the $250,000 or whatever his brother is getting paid is the cherry on top to staying there. 

Finally, fuck the NCAA. Drop the sanctions and let Oklahoma State play in the NCAA Tournament because we need to see Cade in March.