Nope, Nothing Weird Here! Cade Cunningham's Brother Just So Happens To Be Leaving Oklahoma State's Coaching Staff

[247] - Cannen was hired by Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton in July 2019 and is believed to have been a key factor in the Cowboys landing the top prospect in the 2020 recruiting class. He specialized in working with the Oklahoma State big men during the past two seasons, including Cameron McGriff, Yor Anei, Kalib Boone, Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and Bernard Kouma.

I fully understand Cannen Cunningham was an up and coming assistant coach. I also fully understand that he's the brother of the No. 1 prospect and one of the highest-regarded prospects in Cade Cunningham. You don't think Mike Boynton, who was recruiting Cade even before Cannen, realized that? It's a genius hire to bring him on and help land Cade. It brought Oklahoma State a ton of money with Cade to make the NCAA Tournament and win a game. It's going to help with recruiting long term too. Boynton can point to Cade and say look you can come here and be a No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. 

But you don't think there's a shred of irony in this all going down as the NCAA was under trial at the Supreme Court to keep amateurism? Now I'm not going to sit here and accuse Oklahoma State for giving Cade money, that'd be irresponsible of me. But I do know they gave Cannen a quarter of a million dollars to be an assistant coach. You don't think Cannen broke a piece off to Cade at some point? What's the point of being a sibling if you don't help family out? Shit, Cade has this quote (h/t ESPN)! 

"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."

Cade/Cannen are far from the first to have this sort of relationship. LSU hired Ben Simmons' godfather as an assistant. The Mobley brothers had their dad on staff at USC. There have been countless high school/AAU coaches hired as assistants to help land top recruits. It's smart, but it's also just showing why amateurism is a huge scam. Coaches know that players are worth money. Getting top players means you keep your job + the school makes money with the NCAA Tournament, etc. It's even more reason why NIL needs to be a thing. 

These are the type of things I want to see Mark Emmert and the NCAA answer. It's not 'cheating' don't get me wrong. But it's a loophole. Need him with a straight face to say this is normal and in no way fringing the amateurism rule.