Brandon Bass's new wheels

With all the heat Brandon Bass got from that story about him driving a Mercedes SUV he thought he better trade it in for something less conspicuous and start keeping a lower profile. Here is an exclusive first look at his new wheels. You saw it here first

 

This is the car he really wanted but trading a Mercedes for a Corvette was not a big enough step down to keep the heat off off him

 

Some are really jumping on the fact that it was a Mercedes, but like someone said the Blue Book value was around $13000 for a 1998 SUV. I had friend that just traded one in and only got $10000 for a 98. That is not cheap, but even new Mecedes ML series SUVs are close to being in line with other brands.
The other issue issue right now is that all the article could proof was that he drove it a lot but was owned by the teacher. If it ever turns out that LSU did something wrong than we deserve what we get.

 

Well, it's obvious that because he is a highly recruited athlete that there is no way he would do something so crazy as to actually pay for it.

 

Some people can get a lease on one for a buck a year.

 

I know this was a common practice in the past all around the country. Can the NCAA do anything to a school with an athlete in this sitaution? The contract between the Athelete and Car Dealer is valid, but can this fall under the clause of a player cannot take advantage of his fame for personal or family gain??

 

Don't know. Another way around the rules is banks loaning money based on future earnings. A bank may feel Bass will earn enough cash when he enters the NBA for him to purchase the vehicle, now.

 

Or giving a loan to the mom based on the kids future earnings like with Lebron James and his H2. They know Lebron is about to be rich and they will be no way he lets his mom default on the loan. That seems to also be a way around the problem of the player taking advantage of his fame, because the agreement is between the bank and the mom.

 

I do beleive that does fall under the taking advantage of their athlete status. I even think the $1 lease falls in that catagory because if you compare them to someone of a similar economic status the lease would be much different. I guess then you would get into an arguement about what a reasonable payment would be.