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[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/sports/college-basketball-trial.html[/URL]
The Most Honest Man in College Basketball Is Going to Prison
Quotes from the trial:
A lawyer peered at the defendant in United States District Court and demanded to know: Did you violate college rules and give cash payments to collegiate basketball players?
“We were definitely paying players, yes,” he said. “Everyone was paying players.”
Dawkins, 26, did not stop there.
“Me, personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with paying players,” he said. “They are the only people in college basketball who can’t get paid.
“The idea that it’s an amateur world is not real.”
Did you know, a defense lawyer asked Sood, that your plan to pay off college players broke the rules?
“Yes,” he replied.
Did you care?
“I did not.”
As Sood, a balding middle-aged man, had acknowledged liking the young Dawkins, a defense lawyer asked if he felt bad about his betrayal. Sood shrugged. He has a mortgage, a wife and three children, and a financial services business that the federal government for some reason allows him to continue to run.
“I cooperated,” he said. “Everyone has a choice.”
This week in federal court, Richardson was heard on a 2017 F.B.I. wiretap saying that Miller had “bought” Deandre Ayton, a center who spent a semester and change at Arizona and went on to become the No. 1 pick in last year’s N.B.A. draft.
This is what that sounded like:
“You know what he bought per month?” Richardson said to Dawkins.
How much? Dawkins asked.
“I told you, 10,” Richardson said.
Dawkins was impressed. “He’s putting up some real money,” Dawkins said of the Arizona coach.
In the parlance of college player acquisition, this apparently meant that Miller paid Ayton $10,000 per month to play at Arizona. Miller has denied all wrongdoing. Elsewhere on the wiretaps, Dawkins said of Miller, “He’ll talk on the phone about things he should not talk on the phone about.”
In February, reporters asked Arizona’s athletic director, Dave Heeke, about the swirl of accusations around the still-employed Miller. “I want to be very, very clear about it,” Heeke said. “We support this basketball program, we support these players, we support the coaching staff.”
Arizona officials sounded less buoyant this week. “The University of Arizona is closely monitoring developments in the ongoing trial,” a spokesman told me in a two-line email.
Every professional agent, Dawkins explained, followed the same model. You identify elite athletes as early as possible, preferably in ninth grade. Then “you ingratiate yourself with the family, the mom and handlers,” and begin to pay them: rent here, car payment there, maybe just walking-around money.
Did you, Dawkins’s lawyer asked, do the dirty work?
Dawkins leaned forward to the microphone and said, “That’s fair to say.”
“Obviously, Andy was involved in recruiting violations,” Dawkins added in a nonjudgmental, how-could-you-think-otherwise tone.
And Dawkins is heard over and over again on recordings explaining to this “investor” that there was no logic in paying off head coaches. “Raining money doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
“I felt disrespected, to be honest,” Dawkins testified in court. “We’re trying to run a legit business, not a bribe-coaches shop.”
The Most Honest Man in College Basketball Is Going to Prison
Quotes from the trial:
A lawyer peered at the defendant in United States District Court and demanded to know: Did you violate college rules and give cash payments to collegiate basketball players?
“We were definitely paying players, yes,” he said. “Everyone was paying players.”
Dawkins, 26, did not stop there.
“Me, personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with paying players,” he said. “They are the only people in college basketball who can’t get paid.
“The idea that it’s an amateur world is not real.”
Did you know, a defense lawyer asked Sood, that your plan to pay off college players broke the rules?
“Yes,” he replied.
Did you care?
“I did not.”
As Sood, a balding middle-aged man, had acknowledged liking the young Dawkins, a defense lawyer asked if he felt bad about his betrayal. Sood shrugged. He has a mortgage, a wife and three children, and a financial services business that the federal government for some reason allows him to continue to run.
“I cooperated,” he said. “Everyone has a choice.”
This week in federal court, Richardson was heard on a 2017 F.B.I. wiretap saying that Miller had “bought” Deandre Ayton, a center who spent a semester and change at Arizona and went on to become the No. 1 pick in last year’s N.B.A. draft.
This is what that sounded like:
“You know what he bought per month?” Richardson said to Dawkins.
How much? Dawkins asked.
“I told you, 10,” Richardson said.
Dawkins was impressed. “He’s putting up some real money,” Dawkins said of the Arizona coach.
In the parlance of college player acquisition, this apparently meant that Miller paid Ayton $10,000 per month to play at Arizona. Miller has denied all wrongdoing. Elsewhere on the wiretaps, Dawkins said of Miller, “He’ll talk on the phone about things he should not talk on the phone about.”
In February, reporters asked Arizona’s athletic director, Dave Heeke, about the swirl of accusations around the still-employed Miller. “I want to be very, very clear about it,” Heeke said. “We support this basketball program, we support these players, we support the coaching staff.”
Arizona officials sounded less buoyant this week. “The University of Arizona is closely monitoring developments in the ongoing trial,” a spokesman told me in a two-line email.
Every professional agent, Dawkins explained, followed the same model. You identify elite athletes as early as possible, preferably in ninth grade. Then “you ingratiate yourself with the family, the mom and handlers,” and begin to pay them: rent here, car payment there, maybe just walking-around money.
Did you, Dawkins’s lawyer asked, do the dirty work?
Dawkins leaned forward to the microphone and said, “That’s fair to say.”
“Obviously, Andy was involved in recruiting violations,” Dawkins added in a nonjudgmental, how-could-you-think-otherwise tone.
And Dawkins is heard over and over again on recordings explaining to this “investor” that there was no logic in paying off head coaches. “Raining money doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
“I felt disrespected, to be honest,” Dawkins testified in court. “We’re trying to run a legit business, not a bribe-coaches shop.”
