Lance Thomas Settles with Jeweler, Duke’s 2010 Title Safe

Quietly, overshadowed by bigger scandal news eight miles south, Duke’s 2010 national title once appeared in jeopardy.

Not anymore. The program’s fourth championship banner draping from the rafters of Cameron Indoor will remain suspended above.

Former Blue Devils forward Lance Thomas has settled a lawsuit that accused him of defaulting on $68,000 of the nearly $100,000 he owed for jewelry purchased during Duke’s championship 2009-10 season. Thomas paid a $30,000 down payment for five pieces of high-end diamond jewelry and was granted credit for the remaining balance. Over the three years preceding the lawsuit, he had yet to pay any of the $67,800 still owed to the jeweler.

Duke athletic department reps insist the settlement doesn’t change an ongoing inquiry involving the university and the NCAA. But don’t be fooled by the charade. This case, as far as the NCAA is concerned, has been resolved. Coach K’s fourth national title is safe.

Rafaello & Co, the New York City jeweler at the heart of this matter, has already declined to speak to the NCAA. And who could blame it? The NCAA lost its subpoena power in this case as soon as Thomas graduated from Duke. Since Thomas is no longer under the NCAA’s jurisdiction, neither he nor the jeweler can be compelled to speak. Their full cooperation, therefore, is unlikely. And unless someone else steps up and presents new information pertaining to the case, the NCAA is out of leads.

Of course, Thomas, whom most of the general public has presumed is guilty, could very well be scot-free. His mom, who is a manager at a Ford plant in New Jersey, could conceivably have contributed to, or paid in full, the $30,000. Likewise, Thomas’s family may have used money from a college fund set up for the former Duke forward to back the five-figure down payment. Thomas ultimately earned a full-ride athletic scholarship to Duke, so that fund, if there was one, would have been untapped.

At the core of the NCAA’s inquiry is uncovering whether Thomas was issued a favorable line of credit as a result of his status as a former Duke basketball player. If Thomas did in fact take advantage of his status as a student-athlete in this way, he would have been in violation of NCAA rules governing amateurism and thus ineligible. But with nary a testimonial from either Thomas or the jeweler, the odds of the NCAA finding a smoking gun that proves Thomas did benefit from his status as a student-athlete are slim.

Perhaps, as some suspect, a Duke booster helped with the settlement. It’s certainly possible. It was plausible enough to goad NCAA reps into this case and maintain their interest, after all. But it’s again a difficult implication to prove minus cooperation from either party involved in the transaction. If Thomas was really dealing with agents, hangers-on or boosters, where were they on the backside of the payment three years ago when it was due? Why get involved so late in the game? Better yet, why get involved now, when Thomas’s NBA earnings potential is flimsy at best?

Most of the public, already distrustful of the inner-workings in revenue college sports, would love nothing more than to see nationally-loathed Duke nosedive. If the NCAA ruled Thomas ineligible from the time (in December of 2009) he received the jewelry, Duke’s 2010 national championship could tumble from the rafters. UMass vacated its 1996 Final Four because of a similar case involving impermissible benefits received by then-Minutemen cornerstone Marcus Camby. And Duke, conceivably, could have had a similar fate. But it won’t.

Thomas settled out of court, away from the public microscope. The details of his expensive shopping spree will remain cryptic and speculative. No full-scale investigation. No task force. No even-handed testimonials. Just a promise from Duke to cooperate met by a pledge from the NCAA to continue digging.

In the end, the jewelry stays in Durham. Thomas keeps his necklaces. Coach K holds onto his four rings. The upshot, quite favorable for Duke.