Former San Diego State basketball player Chad Baker-Mazara accused USC coach Eric Musselman of a “profanity-laced, racially-charged, postgame locker room tirade … that was unprovoked, vicious and discriminatory” in a civil lawsuit over allegedly unpaid installments from his NIL and revenue-sharing contract.
The next day, Baker-Mazara, USC’s leading scorer, was dismissed from the team.
That was last March, and the two sides have been battling behind the scenes over payment of what a source said amounts to roughly one-third of the reported $3 million deal for the 6-foot-7 guard in his final season of collegiate eligibility.
USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth college in six years. He started at Duquesne, followed by a single season at SDSU before leaving for academic reasons in the summer of 2022. After a year at a Florida community college, Baker-Mazara played two seasons at Auburn, reaching the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four, then headed back west to the Trojans.
The case is filled with San Diego ties: a former Aztecs guard … represented by San Diego law firm Yale & Baumgarten … suing a school coached by a USD alum.
USC provided a statement Monday night to the California Post:
“The decision to remove the student-athlete from the men’s basketball roster was based on a number of considerations, none having to do with race. We look forward to defeating this action in court.”
The 16-page complaint, a copy of which was obtained by the Union-Tribune, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday afternoon. At its core, the case is about unpaid NIL and revenue-sharing money. But the headline, no doubt, will be the alleged exchange between Baker-Mazara and Musselman in the locker room following a Feb. 28 home loss against Nebraska that essentially eliminated USC from at-large NCAA Tournament consideration.
Baker-Mazara started the game and scored 14 points in the first half before aggravating a knee injury and sitting out the second half.
The complaint alleges Musselman told Baker-Mazara in front of other players that “you are one of the worst teammates anyone can ever have.”
Baker-Mazara claims he responded: “Wow Coach, do you need me to leave because I don’t understand this animosity.”
Musselman, the complaint says, screamed: “Yes, leave. Go back to the (expletive) Dominican Republic. Nobody wants you here.”
The complaint adds: “The words ‘Go back to the (bleeping) Dominican Republic’ are generally understood by persons of color in the United States originating from the Dominican Republic – and were in fact taken by Baker-Mazara – to be racist and discriminatory, akin to telling an African-American to ‘go back to Africa.’”
His February and March payments were withheld, the complaint surmises, so USC “could ‘wait-and-see’ what would happen in the Nebraska game and whether the Trojans would make the NCAA Tournament. If the Trojans lost and their NCAA Tournament hopes were dashed, USC would deny payment and save for itself the remaining very substantial balance (for) its next recruiting class as Baker-Mazara was out of eligibility.”
The complaint does not specify financial damages sought, either for disputed NIL payments or from what it describes as an effort to blackball his NBA prospects.
Baker-Mazara claims an invitation to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a postseason scouting event for the nation’s top seniors, was rescinded and “other professional opportunities fell through or were materially jeopardized.”
He was not invited to the NBA Draft Combine and went undrafted in the June draft despite some projecting him as a second-round pick, nor was he invited to any NBA training camps this month. Instead, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the Puerto Rican professional league.
“(USC) engaged in independently wrongful conduct,” the complaint says, “designed to disrupt Baker-Mazara’s economic relationships and professional prospects through the conduct of its employee, Coach Musselman.”
At SDSU, Baker-Mazara came off the bench and was named Mountain West Sixth Man of the Year. An emotionally charged player, he had 17 first-half points in the NCAA Tournament against Creighton but was subbed out after a pair of defensive mistakes in the second half and never returned in what became an overtime loss.
At USC, he averaged 18.5 points per game while shooting 38.1% behind the arc. The Trojans finished 18-14 overall and in 12th place in the Big Ten at 7-13.
The two sometimes combustible personalities seemed to be meshing after a Dec. 9 game at USD – a homecoming of sorts for both – in which Baker-Mazara had 31 points in a 94-81 victory.
“I feel super comfortable with him,” said Musselman, who was the Dominican Republic’s national coach in 2010. “We do talk a lot off the floor. I know when he’s going to go off the rails a little bit, and you just try to get him back on. I talked to a lot of people who had him before, and I just think because of my Dominican background of being over there, we’ve got a really good pulse coming in.”
A few minutes later, Baker-Mazara said: “I’m playing for a program I always wanted to play for, which is USC. And I’m with a great coach who really understands me on and off the court.”
Less than three months later, it had unraveled.