Was Ater Majok Forced To Leave UConn?

When it was announced that Ater Majok had left the UConn Huskies basketball program on September 1st, there was some speculation that he might have left to help out his family. There were also some thoughts that maybe just maybe it had something to do with the ongoing NCAA investigation into the UConn program.

Ater MajokWell from the sounds of his comments and the ones from his agent Mike Lelchitzki to David Borges of the New Haven Register, it seems like Majok may have been forced to withdraw from UConn.

Here’s what Majok said:

“I didn’t want to leave,” he said. “I’m not stupid. Why stay around here all summer, miss the NBA circuit, and then leave? At the end of the day, I had no choice.”

And here’s what Lelchitzki had to say about the situation:

“From what I understand, it wasn’t his decision,” Lelchitski said. “I don’t know what was behind it, but it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t his decision – or it wasn’t all his decision. It was his decision to go pro. He could have transferred to another school.”

Majok is now heading over to Europe hoping to catch on with a team there.

Taking the comments from Majok and his agent into account, it sure seems to me that maybe Majok was forced to leave as part of UConn’s reply to the NCAA about the investigation. When you look at the allegations, for one there are no names. Secondly, it is widely assumed that this had to do with the recruitment of Nate Miles and not Majok.

But now with those comments, one could be lead to believe that maybe some of the allegations involved Majok.

So the question still remains, why did Majok leave UConn? Unless Jim Calhoun comes out and says why or UConn finally releases it’s reply to the allegations, we’ll never know.

Photo credit: Hartford Courant

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