Hold your fire: Judging Wall, Sidney risky business

John Wall is a punk. An ingrate and a punk. He is the No. 1 player in the high school class of 2009, which means he has superstar NBA DNA, but weeks short of graduating from high school he has been charged with breaking and entering. So you think he's an idiot. And you're not alone.

Another top member of the class of 2009 -- perhaps the second-best player in the entire class -- has NCAA investigators on his back. His name is Renardo Sidney, and it appears his amateur status, such as it is, will prevent him from playing a second of college basketball. How bad is it? So bad that Tim Floyd of Southern California, who has a chronic case of whiplash from looking the other way, won't touch him. And yet Mississippi State will. Mississippi State signed Sidney. So you think Mississippi State is dirty. And you're not alone.

What it all means, for the here and now, is that I need some help. From you. Because I'm about to write some things on both topics that you don't expect to see, don't want to see, and won't want to believe. Read it anyway. Because it's possible that you're wrong. Hell, it's possible I'm wrong.

Just kidding.

You're wrong. The facts look one way, but the facts aren't the most important part of either story -- about "stupid" John Wall, or about "slimy" Mississippi State. It's the interpretation of the facts that matters. And it's in that interpretation where you're wrong.

First of all, the easy issue. John Wall. This thing is a piece of cake, but not the piece you've been eating up. Maybe time will tell that Wall is an immature or even a bad kid, but this bogus "breaking and entering" charge doesn't tell anything about him. It tells much more about the Raleigh Police Department, which went for easy headlines when it trumped up ludicrous charges against Wall, a 6-foot-4 guard who could very well be the next Derrick Rose.

Seriously. Breaking and entering? When we think of breaking and entering, we instinctively think of something a lot more sinister than being inside an empty house. Yet that's all Wall is said to be "guilty" of. Hanging out inside an empty house. And not a shady crack den or an abandoned house headed for a date with a bulldozer.

•  Wall charged with breaking and entering | Sidney signs with Miss. State

It was a normal house on a normal street. According to police, Wall didn't force his way into the foreclosed house or take anything while he was there. He was just inside an empty house. Is that wrong? Sure it is. Is it so wrong that it's criminal? Lord I hope not, or I'm a criminal, too. Growing up in Mississippi, I ventured into a handful of empty houses. Why? Because that's what kids do. They might even make out with a girlfriend or drink a beer in there. Shocking, I know.

If Renardo Sidney plays for Mississippi State next season, the Bulldogs will have hit the lotto. (US Presswire)

So understand this: The school that signs Wall, whether it's Kentucky or Duke or whoever else, is doing nothing wrong. Because Wall, in the grand scheme of things, has done nothing wrong. I have two sons, 13 and 11, and if by college the worst thing they've done is be spotted leaving an empty house ... give me a standing ovation. Because I will have done one hell of a job as a parent.

When Wall chooses a school beside yours, you'll rip him and the school that takes him. And you know you will. But if he'd ended up on your team you'd have loved him, and your coach for landing him. And you know that as well. So back off the kid, and the school that gets him.

See? Simple.

Now, the hard one. Renardo Sidney.

Unlike the Wall incident, which looks bad only if you're a moron or a member of the Raleigh Police Department (sorry, redundancy), the Sidney situation looks bad, period. He originally committed to play for Southern California, but the Trojans -- who can't afford any more red flags after the Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo travesties -- backed off after getting wind of the NCAA's interest in Sidney and also his family, which followed him from affordable Jackson, Miss., to exorbitant Los Angeles and still paid its bills easily. Too easily? That's what the NCAA wants to know. And that's why USC backed off.

So Sidney, a 6-10 center, chose Mississippi State, which would allow his family to move back home and still watch him play. Assuming he becomes eligible.

And he might not. I'm not absolving the kid of NCAA guilt. If something against NCAA rules happened while he was in California -- playing for notorious club coach Pat Barrett or even for his dad, who started up a team with seed money from Reebok -- it wouldn't surprise me. At the highest level, the purest thing about youth basketball is the purity of greed. Bad things happen. Did they happen with Renardo Sidney? I have no idea.

But if they did, they didn't happen under Mississippi State's watch.

By signing Sidney, the Bulldogs are basically hoping to win the lottery. The odds against his eligibility could be long, but if it happens, Mississippi State is an immediate Final Four contender. And if Sidney never plays a minute of college, well, what did it hurt Mississippi State? The basketball team's reputation? People already have thoughts about that. The Bulldogs have signed some of the biggest prospects in recent years, including Jonathan Bender and Travis Outlaw and Monta Ellis, but saw all of them go straight to the NBA. A talent pipeline like that one, even one that never quite gushes, causes negative talk. So will signing Sidney. Do you really think, at this point, that Mississippi State cares?

So back off Mississippi State. The story about Sidney, whatever it is, is in Los Angeles. And the story about John Wall is fiction.