The Public League Playoffs are generally the most exciting event of the high school basketball season.
The 32-team tournament features more overall talent and top teams than local holiday tournaments. And in an era with the watered-down four-class IHSA State Playoffs, the Public League Playoffs are the only event that features all of the city's top teams competing for one prize. There is even still a feeling among some programs, coaches and players that winning city matters more than winning state. Local acclaim and bragging rights can be a powerful thing.
But what should be an exciting and wide-open 2020 city tournament has already been overshadowed by off-the-court issues with two of the state's best programs. Instead of the focus centering on quarterfinal mega matchups — Lindblom's potential Cinderella story and multiple White Division schools like Phillips and Crane pulling out first-round wins on the road at Red Division schools — the headlines and general discussion have gravitated towards the ongoing drama at Lincoln Park and Curie.
Lincoln Park forfeited its Public League Playoff first-round matchup against Perspectives-MSA on Tuesday. A wide-ranging scandal has removed head coach Pat Gordon and suspended the season for the boys basketball team. As parents and students grapple with a new administration and additional controversy surrounding the removal of popular new leadership, a once-promising boys basketball season has been derailed with no answers in sight.
The Lions had only lost one game to Illinois competition this high school season, climbing to as high as No. 8 in last week's NBC Sports Chicago Preps Power Rankings before their season was put on hiatus. For a talented team featuring multiple players still seeking scholarship offers, being removed from the city tournament has been a brutal — and very public — ordeal.
Talented junior guard Ismail Habib, a Division I prospect and one of the city's top guards, has been publicly pleading to let Lincoln Park play basketball again on Twitter. To have a season seemingly taken away from a group that had legitimate city and state title hopes is a cruel twist for a strong start to the season for the Lions.
Wednesday delivered another bombshell as Michael O'Brien of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Curie head coach Mike Oliver has been removed from his position at Curie — meaning Oliver is not in charge of the Condors boys basketball team for the time being.
The Condors are the state's No. 1 team this season, going undefeated so far against Illinois competition and climbing into some national top-25 rankings for the second consecutive season.
Oliver, who has worked security and been boys basketball coach at Curie for 27 years, has taken his alma mater from an afterthought into a perennial title contender. Assistant coach Larry Wallace is currently the head coach at Curie as the CPS investigates the claim against Oliver.
Although Curie is still in the Public League Playoffs, with the Condors scheduled to host Marshall on Thursday afternoon in a second-round matchup, Oliver not being on the sidelines is a huge blow for the tournament's favorite.
One of the state's most underrated coaches, Oliver took an unheralded group this season with only one bonafide Division I prospect (senior Ramean Hinton) and turned them into a nationally-renowned juggernaut. With no timeline for the CPS investigation into Oliver's claims, he might not return to the bench for weeks to come.
Even if the Public League Playoffs deliver a classic matchup with a memorable finish, the 2020 Playoffs might always be remembered for what happened away from the court instead of on it. And that's a shame given how much this event means to the Chicago basketball community.