"Tractor" Traylor sinks to Spanish League while facing 8 to 14 months in prison

[vjz]

Traylor pulls down a career [detroitnews.com]

Former Michigan, NBA player from Detroit sinks to Spanish League while facing 8 to 14 months in prison.

Fred Girard / The Detroit News

Robert "Tractor" Traylor was spending a day off between home games with the New Orleans Hornets in March 2004 when, 950 miles away in a Detroit suburb, a woman began babbling to a desk clerk about a dead body in her hotel room.

That odd circumstance -- there never was a corpse, the woman was in the midst of a mental breakdown -- led investigators to the largest one-case series of drug busts in Michigan, and perhaps in the nation.

One set of seized records led drug and tax investigators directly to a favor Traylor foolishly had done for his Cousin Q.

Traylor helped launder nearly $4 million of Cousin Q's drug money.

Now, instead of hooking on with another NBA team as he had hoped, Traylor, 30, of West Bloomfield, married and a father of two, might be going to federal prison for eight to 14 months.

Traylor's Cousin Q -- Quasand Daniell Lewis, 36, also of West Bloomfield -- is there already, sentenced to 18 years. He turned out to be arguably the largest dope dealer in Michigan history.

Traylor "got some bad advice, and unfortunately he took it," said his attorney, Steve Fishman of Detroit.

"He's a basketball player, not a lawyer."

Traylor burned through nearly $11 million in salary he received in his seven-season NBA career.

Fishman won't call Traylor broke, but said, "For those who think that all NBA players are wealthy, Robert Traylor is an example of one who is not."

Traylor declined, through Fishman, to be interviewed.

A Michigan man

In 1994, Traylor was a nimble-footed, 6-foot-8, 300-pounder who led Murray-Wright High to the Public School League basketball title, earning himself a scholarship to Michigan.

There he added a few pals to the complimentary ticket list, including Sidney Dorsey, a twice-convicted drug dealer; and Lewis, who attended the team's opening game in 1995 shortly after doing 3 1/2 years for felony cocaine distribution.

On Feb. 17, 1996, Traylor suffered a season-ending broken arm in a car crash. He and four other Michigan players -- Maurice Taylor, Louis Bullock, Willie Mitchell and Ron Oliver -- had been partying all night with a prospect from Flint, Mateen Cleaves, and were returning to campus when the accident occurred.

It took the media and federal investigators more than seven years to untangle what had happened. The party in a posh Detroit hotel suite, featuring strippers, booze and drugs, had been financed by Eddie L. Martin, a retired autoworker who flashed lots of cash around impressionable young basketball players from inner-city Detroit.

Martin had secretly paid four Michigan players -- Traylor, Taylor, Bullock and Chris Webber -- $616,000 in proceeds from an enormous numbers racket he was running, a grand jury eventually determined. Sixteen people were convicted of federal charges, and Michigan paid a steep price in NCAA penalties.

Despite the near-global notoriety of the case, within a year of the accident, Traylor, who is of modest origins financially, raised eyebrows by tooling around campus in a customized Chevrolet Suburban costing $47,906.

Traylor was chosen sixth by Dallas in the 1998 draft. He was traded that day to Milwaukee for Dirk Nowitzki.

Traylor never started, hindered by excess weight and a tendency to foul. He bounced to Cleveland, Charlotte, New Orleans and back to Cleveland as a free agent for the 2004-05 season, when his option was dropped.

A booming business

Meanwhile, Lewis' drug business in Detroit was flourishing. From 1999 to 2002, investigators have traced sales of 30,000 pounds of marijuana, and an undetermined amount of cocaine. That resulted in $178 million in cash that needed laundering, according to court documents and interviews with investigators.

That was the specialty of Lewis' close associate, Will Ulmer, 64, of Farmington Hills.

Ulmer, who also has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, knew how to draw up real estate and other legal documents. Bags of cash were toted to banks and turned into cashier's checks, which were used by associates to purchase property. That was Traylor's role.

Ulmer talked Traylor into acting as purchaser of two Detroit apartment buildings, for $3.75 million, from businessman Herb Strather. Traylor attended at least one closing with Strather, Fishman said.

Strather "never thought he was dealing with anyone but this NBA star," said his attorney, David Zacks, of Birmingham.

After Lewis' organization was rolled up, the government threatened to pursue forfeiture of the apartments and the money that had been used to purchase them. Strather had to pay $1.5 million in a settlement to own the properties again.

Ulmer had another piece of advice for Traylor, Fishman said: Why not take a rental loss for the apartments off his income taxes? And Traylor did -- $205,668 deducted from his 2004 taxable income.

Traylor's involvement remained secret until a woman who was part of Lewis' operation lost her grip on reality March 18, 2004.

Yelling, "He's dead! He's dead!" she led police to room 102 at the Studio Plus Hotel in Novi. There they found, instead of a body, $3.4 million in cash, a pound of marijuana, ledgers, cell phones, computer files -- enough hard evidence to crush Lewis' operation.

Dozens of arrests and convictions ensued; and the government has seized more than $18.4 million in cash and property.

In January, Traylor pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the preparation of a false tax return. Fishman said he's hopeful the government will ask the judge to reduce the 8-14-month sentence called for by federal guidelines because Traylor cooperated.

Sentencing has not been scheduled, and Traylor has left the country. U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn, with the OK of federal prosecutors, granted Traylor permission to travel to Spain -- an extraordinary privilege for a person awaiting a possible prison sentence -- from March 12 through June 1.

Traylor now plays for Gestiberica Vigo of the Spanish League's third division. It's high-caliber basketball, but a long fall from the NBA.

"Robert made some bad decisions," said Murray Wright basketball coach Earl Moore, an assistant there during Traylor's playing days. "He was like a lot of young men who get into the NBA, get surrounded by a large amount of money.

"He started living a different lifestyle. He didn't keep it simple. He stopped listening to the people who got him there."

[Male30Dan]

You know, I was thinking the other day where we would be if we had kept this pick...

It really is crazy how one small draft-day trade for a relatively unknown foreign forward can change an entire franchise's future. Especially when that trade was viewed as a mistake when it was made.

[dirno2000]

Nellie once said that one of his biggest regrets was trading down in that draft to save Perot some cash.

Of course Paul Pierce was still on the board when the Bucks picked so if Sac or Philly would have taken Dirk, we still end up with Pierce.

As far as Traylor, I've been a Michigan fan since Tarpley and Gary Grant played there so I hate to see him doing so bad. Even if he did bring it on himself.

[mkat]

yes...crazy how a simple trade can totally effect a team. imagine if we had kept this guy...

[chumdawg]

As D2K pointed out, it wasn't really a trade. It was just manuevering down and getting our guy, with some bonus. In retrospect, a hell of chance to take. But as it worked out, it was probably going to be Pierce if it wasn't Dirk. But still, Nellie had to be holding his breath.

So sad for the Bucks, to pay a price to move up and get that piece of crap.

[Epitome22]

A lot if it is just dump luck. Like was said earlier, it could just have easily been Paul Pierce as Dirk that the Mavs got. Just as 5 years ago the Mavs would have ended up with Boris Diaw instead of Josh Howard if he hadn't been picked up earlier.