And he was successful. Two days
later in the April 9 edition, The Somerville News published an admiring
story crediting Craven as an "NBA bigwig" – he said he was the director
of player development for the Seattle SuperSonics – still in touch with
his local roots.

In an interview that lasted more than 90
minutes, Craven told elaborate lies about relationships he claimed to
have with Sonics players, coaches and management. In fact, Craven
admitted to the News this week that he has never met any of the
SuperSonics players he claimed to be mentoring.

As a lawyer for
the SuperSonics said, "The Somerville News has been duped by a
publicity hungry local citizen." The News should have fact-checked
Craven's claims and regrets the error.

However, News staffers
were not the only ones suckered by Craven's trickery. This week Craven
admitted he lied to dozens of people in the city – including his wife
and his brothers – about his NBA job..

When he came into the
News office in April, he was wearing a SuperSonics jumpsuit. He passed
out team t-shirts to friends and family. After the story was posted on
TheSomervilleNews.com Craven said he went online and anonymously wrote
50 comments under the story lauding himself as "an asset to the
community" and "a hunk."

When a reporter interviewed him for this story the question that kept popping up was, "why?"

"I don't know why I did it. I keep coming up with question marks when I think about it," Craven said.

The
lies started in June when he flew to Seattle to meet someone he met on
the Internet. He told people who asked that he was going out for a job
interview and after three more trips out West claimed he had been
hired. While he was in Seattle, Craven said he did catch a few
SuperSonics practice sessions that were open to the public and even
went to a few games.

"I got a good sense of the team and how they played together," he said.

Craven
said he tried to contact SuperSonics General Manager Sam Presti
repeatedly while he was in Seattle to try and get a job with the team
(in the April interview with the News Craven said he had a longtime
personal relationship with Presti. In a letter from the SuperSonics the
team said he had "no relationship whatsoever" with him), but never made
a connection.

"I just wanted to scout and work for the team so bad I think I started to believe I did," he said.

One
person who believed Craven worked for the SuperSonics said he would
often call after games, claiming to be with the team. "I started to get
into basketball. I thought I had met someone who worked in the NBA.
Little did I know he was just your average sociopath," said the person,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

And the lies didn't
stop there. Craven admitted to the News that he had also used other
people's names when he met strangers. He said he told people he was
Jeff Turner – a 6 foot 9 inch former NBA player who even die hard
basketball fans strain to remember. Craven himself is 6 foot 8 and said
Turner's obscurity was one reason he used the name.

"He talked
about his career with the Nets and the Magic. He spoke at length about
covering Larry Bird and playing on the same team as Shaq," said a woman
who knew Craven as Jeff Turner.

As bizarre as it was, Craven
seemed to be getting away with his many ruses. He first told people in
Somerville he had an interview with Seattle last June. And, in addition
to telling people he was Turner, he also told strangers he was Todd
Lichti – another unremarkable, tall, white, former NBA journeyman.

But
it seems it was his thirst for attention – and his trip to the News
office – that finally did him in. The woman who knew him only as Jeff
Turner googled Turner's name and saw a picture that didn't match the
man she knew.

The woman then called the police who, she said,
contacted Craven "to tell him he was a weirdo" but could not charge him
with any specific crime. When she found out his real name, the woman
searched the internet for Ron Craven and found the News article and the
dozens of glowing comments posted under it.

From that moment,
Craven's days pretending to be director of player development for the
Seattle SuperSonics were numbered. The real Jeff Turner filed a
complaint with the NBA's security division. The Sonics released a
letter unequivocally stating Craven has no relationship with the team.
Reporters in Seattle are retracing his steps in that city.