There was a stretch in 2014-15 when IU basketball players couldn’t stay out of the news.
Seven players were involved in six different off-court incidents from early 2014 through the summer of 2015. There was a wave of suspensions, and ultimately several players were kicked off the team by head coach Tom Crean.
A young OG Anunoby had to wonder just exactly what kind of situation he was stepping into when he arrived on campus in the early summer of 2015.
Even though he was never reported to be involved with any of it, one of Anunoby’s early assignments while on the IU campus was to write a letter to former Indiana basketball players to apologize for the run of poor judgment by the players. Apparently all of the players had to pitch in and do their part.
With Anunoby in the news for his performance in the NBA Finals, former IU star Kirk Haston shared the letter he received from Anunoby. Presumably it was written in 2015 when Anunoby was a freshman.
“With OG’s NBA Finals heroics, this has become an even cooler piece in my Hoosier collection,” Haston said on X. “When OG was at IU, a few of his teammates got into some trouble, leading to IU players getting assigned former Hoosiers to write apology notes. Luckily I got mine from OG.”
Here are the photos of Anunoby’s letter Haston shared on X:
Here’s what Anunoby wrote by hand to Haston.
“Dear Mr. Haston:
The men’s basketball team would like to apologize for the recent poor behavior that we exhibited. Everything we do is a reflection of the coaches, the university and the former players. We’re sorry that we have reflected you in a poor way. We should know that we are held to a higher standard as basketball players at Indiana University. We are very sorry.
Sincerely,
OG Anunoby”
If Crean’s plan was to hold his players accountable, and maybe even humiliate them a little bit, it worked. Indiana’s players stayed out of trouble throughout the 2015-16 season and went on to win the outright Big Ten championship.
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