Fall Guys

This would have been the ideal opportunity for Oran to explain how he feels that a dagger had been plunged into his back. But Oran figured that giving his former boss an earful of sound and fury would signify nothing. Instead, he ended the call cordially. "If I'm serious about getting back in the business, no good can come from getting on Tom's bad side," he says. "I guess a part of me still thinks of him as the coach and me the assistant."

Asked what deeper truths he had gleaned from the entire experience, a look of disappointment and an ironic smile wrestled on Oran's face. "I've learned that there's not a lot of commission to be made from selling Blazers," he says. Then his smile vanishes as he adds, "And I've learned that when you're an assistant in college basketball, you can't expect loyalty to be a two-way street."