Stay safe everybody on Zulema St.
Down in Houston to see family. Wonder if this might be a topic of discussion with my sister and brother-in-law (both Rice alum)?
Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi? has been a key player in the Ducks’ run to the Sweet 16, but while at Rice from 2009-12 he alleged that Owls athletic director Rick Greenspan repeatedly made insulting and discriminating remarks to him, two fellow Middle Eastern players and an assistant coach, and that led to his request for a hardship waiver from the NCAA to be eligible to play this season.
According to a document obtained by SI.com, Kazemi, the first Iranian-born player in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball, alleged in his hardship waiver that Greenspan made derogatory comments referencing Al-Qaeda and the Axis of Evil when talking about Kazemi and two of his teammates.
The NCAA only grants hardship waivers under special circumstances, but in this case it gave waivers to Kazemi and his teammate, center Omar Oraby, an Egyptian who transferred to USC in September.
The Egyptian born assistant coach who helped recruit these players also filed an EEOC complaint after he was let go. At the most generous, kind reading of the comments the Rice AD made, he was making very, very tasteless jokes.
