Ten years ago, then-prep basketball phenom Brandon Jennings decided not to take the one-and-done college route to Arizona and instead opted to play professionally in Italy for a year with a lucrative shoe contract in hand. Looking back, the eight-year NBA veteran who most recently played in China has no regrets about his move. And with the FBI now cracking down on college stars receiving extra benefits without getting paid by the NCAA, the current G League Wisconsin Herd guard believes that elite high school stars should consider playing in the G League or overseas instead of taking the one-and-done route in the “billion-dollar business” of the NCAA. “My decision was for me,” Jennings said. “I always feel bad for the kids because I always felt like the kids should get paid in college, at least something. The NCAA is a billion-dollar business. You’re telling a kid like [Oklahoma’s] Trae Young, who is killing it and you’re telling me alumni or someone else can’t take him out to a nice dinner?”
More on NCAA Scandal
As Arizona coach Sean Miller forcibly professed his innocence on Thursday in a statement that affirmed his status with the team, a source familiar with the college hoops corruption investigation confirmed with SI that the details of a wiretapped phone call involving Miller were inaccurately reported in a story by ESPN that said Miller “discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats.”
According to the source, relevant FBI wiretaps in the investigation did not begin until 2017—months after five-star recruit Deandre Ayton had already committed to Arizona in Sept. 2016. This account is consistent with reporting by Evan Daniels of 247Sports. The recruitment of Ayton, therefore, would have not been at issue in an intercepted phone call that occurred in 2017. To that end, the source told SI what Miller clarified for the first time Thursday: Ayton is not the player on whose behalf former ASM Sports employee Christian Dawkins allegedly sought a payment from Miller, and Miller never pursued or made any payments to a recruit associated with Dawkins.
CH: What do you think about what's going on with the NCAA? Kevin Durant: First off, they gotta stop publicizing how much money we make as NBA players 'cause it's driving these parents and these kids crazy. So now they're saying, oh, such and such just made $200 million on a five-year deal. What you think his parents now talk about? They're not even worrying about the game no more, it's like, "Oh yeah, you need to go get that." You know what I'm saying? Whereas back in the day, I didn't know what none of these dudes was making? I just wanted to be them. I just wanted to be like them on the basketball court. So that's one thing, in my opinion -- obviously it's not gonna happen -- but I think that's one of the reasons why you're going crazy around here with the cash ...
Kevin Durant: And giving power to a bunch of kids. Come on, 18, 19 years old, these kids get to dictate. ... They running these shoe companies, they running these coaches, they can like, blink-of-an-eye be like, nah, I don't want to go there, you don't got enough money for me. When you putting that much power into a kid's hands, for one, you manipulating them and playing with them because you got more money than them. That's messed up to me, but at the same time, these kids out here slaving for your programs and bringing a lot of money to these schools and we had $300 scholarship checks from the school -- $300 a month. When I was at Texas. I don't know what it's like right now, but it can't be much more.
Michael Beasley: Yeah, and it's sad, man, because in most cases these kids don't know what's going on. Like, a lot of these kids are just playing and their parents are taking advantage of them. Do I think that college players should be compensated for the money, not just basketball but football also, the money that they generate the NCAA? Yes, but on how to do it, I don't have that answer.
Former president Barack Obama shared NBA superstar LeBron James' perspective on how to improve the NCAA, which James called "corrupt" on Tuesday in wake of multiple reports implicating major NCAA players, coaches and programs in the FBI's ongoing investigation into illegal recruiting. Obama spoke in an an off-the-record panel at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at MIT over the weekend, and his comments were ultimately leaked by Reason. The former president said the NBA would be smart to embrace a "'well-structured" G-League "so that the NCAA is not serving as a farm system for the NBA with a bunch of kids who are unpaid but are under enormous financial pressure." The former president felt that type of system "won't solve all the problems but what it will do is reduce the hypocrisy."
"It's just not a sustainable way of doing business," Obama said of the NCAA. "Then when everybody acts shocked that some kid from extraordinarily poor circumstances who's got 5, 10, 15 million dollars waiting for him is going to be circled by everybody in a context in which people are making billions of dollars, it's not good."
While Van Gundy pointed out the inconsistency of those who favor one-and-done, the NCAA’s legal battle to avoid paying its players brings race even further into the discussion. On multiple occasions, the NCAA has cited Vanskike v. Peters — a case in which the judge ruled that a prison inmate could not be considered an employee of the prison — in arguing why it shouldn’t have to pay student-athletes. A recent citation has come in Livers v. NCAA, a case in which former Villanova multi-sport athlete Lawrence “Poppy” Livers argues that college athletes are employees and should be paid.
You read that correctly. The NCAA cited a case in which the court refused to hear arguments about employment status because the plaintiff was a prisoner, and thus subject to forced labor as “punishment for a crime,” the sole exception to the abolition of slavery under the 13th Amendment. Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins summed up the court’s findings in Berger v. NCAA, another case in which the NCAA used the same precedent: “The Seventh Circuit’s contorted reasoning bears repeating. College athletes are similar to prisoners economically because the ‘revered tradition of amateurism’ in college spanning more than 100 years ‘defines the economic reality of the relationship between student-athletes and their schools,’ the court wrote. As with inmates, asking any questions about who benefits from their work would ‘fail to capture the true nature of their relationship.’ In other words, amateurism is as confining and defining as jail.”
"I would love to sit down with the NCAA just to hear - no, I'm serious. Just hear about their thought process behind this and what they're thinking. What's the future? I'm all for the athletes. I think we need to figure something out for college as a whole."
"I think it has to be a collective effort between NCAA, NBA - just basketball as a whole. NCAA and amateur sports have been corrupt for so long. We all know that. Whether you get caught doing it or not, it is what it is. But that's beside the point. I think college basketball players - college athletes, period - should be compensated. You have to think about a 16-year-old kid, 17-year-old kid going to college. Yeah, they get a free education if they get a scholarship. But how are they surviving on those campuses? A lot of them can't afford food. They're getting in trouble for taking $10 or $20. A friend or a family member can't give them money. It's so many smalls things that go along with that. I just wish and hope and pray that something happens.
While he was cleared by the FBI after its six-year investigation into Michigan booster Ed Martin and his payment of players, four Wolverines (most notably Chris Webber) were found to have received more than $600,000 combined from Martin. The sanctions that followed stained the Michigan program but changed nothing of the question that remains today: Why aren’t the players who are driving these profits paid? “It really just becomes a mockery when you hear that the players who are participating can’t profit off of their likeness, can’t get a summer job, can’t go to the pros right after high school, all of these barriers,” Rose said. “An organization like the NCAA can still be classified as a 501-C3 (nonprofit organization tax classification)? That in itself allows me to understand that there definitely needs to be change – swift, fast and in a hurry.”
“So we live in a country that has profited for hundreds of years off the labor of individuals without having to pay for it,” Rose said. “So now you come full circle. Which sports are we having this conversation (about amateurs being paid) in? In football and in basketball, predominantly black sports. We’re not having this conversation about soccer players, tennis players, about golfers (who can play professionally at younger ages). No one is in an uproar about what they’re doing as amateurs. It only takes place in those two sports because that labor is now something that people are profiting on, and they want to make sure they profit on it as long as possible.
Sexton and Carter are expected to enter the NBA after their freshman seasons and are projected lottery picks in the 2018 NBA draft. Smith, Adebayo and Fultz also left college after one season to play in the NBA. The NCAA and colleges receive billions of dollars, thanks to these college athletes playing for them with only a scholarship and a stipend as their payment. So instead of a McDonald’s All-American or Jordan Brand Classic All-Star playing the one-and-done game and going to college for a year, why not just go to the G League, where the money received from agents and endorsement deals is legal? “I think that’s part of the solution toward NCAA reform,” Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said.
"It's just not a sustainable way of doing business," said Obama. "Then when everybody acts shock that some kid from extraordinarily poor circumstances who's got 5, 10, 15 million dollars waiting for him is going to be circled by everybody in a context in which people are making billions of dollars, it's not good." Creating an alternative league for people eventually headed to the NBA "won't solve all the problems but what it will do is reduce the hypocrisy" of pretending that all student-athletes are both students and athletes.
On Friday, ESPN reported that FBI wiretaps intercepted calls between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and former ASM sports associate Christian Dawkins, “in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman DeAndre Ayton signed with the Wildcats.” During a TV report, ESPN said that the phone call took place in the spring of 2017. The network then issued a correction, stating that the phone call between Miller and Dawkins took place in the spring of 2016. ESPN then corrected its first correction, stating that the phone call between Miller and Dawkins took place in the year 2016, removing the "spring" designation. But the timeline doesn't add up. A source told 247Sports that Dawkins (who had his phone tapped by the FBI) and Miller had calls intercepted between the timeframe of June 19 of 2017, through Sept. 25.
Jabari Young: Gregg Popovich on #NCAA issues: “It’s not the kids, it’s the adults...” #Spurs #NBA
Vincent Ellis: Stan Van Gundy on the college basketball scandal: “The NCAA is one of the worst organizations – maybe the worst organization – in sports. They certainly don’t care about the athlete.” #Pistons.
KC Johnson: Lauri Markkanen on Sean Miller: "It’s sad but obviously I can talk only on my own regards. It’s sad to see that happen. I’m not going to speculate on anything."
Connor Letourneau: Kerr: "The NCAA model is really a good one. ... But the fact is, college sports have become a billion dollar industry, and you do have some key figures driving economics."
Logan Murdock: Steve Kerr said he doesn’t think the school should pay for players. Instead he suggests that players should be able to market themselves, similar to how Olympic athletes make money.
Rod Beard: #Pistons SVG on paying college players: "I think that college players deserve to get paid, but there should be a system for it. it would probably be better than the black market."
Steve Kyler: Some in the agent world have expressed surprise in how much ASM documented - but honestly they ran all this like a business. These payouts were called loans on the books and likely written off as losses when they didn’t pan out.
Steve Kyler: I was told as many as 30 schools have been implicated in some way - that’s virtually every one. twitter.com/bobbyl_az/stat…
Ira Winderman: Reading Yahoo's wonderful coverage of the NCAA play-for-pay basketball payouts have to wonder about the IRS implications. Unlikely any of that money/income trail showed up on tax statements. Seems like there will have to be a lot of explaining to do on that end should IRS enter.
The document lists Adebayo as having received a $36,500 payment, which is listed as “bad loan.” Adebayo never signed with ASM Sports. The Heat said Adebayo declined to comment on the matter during the team’s pregame shootaround at the Smoothie King Center before its game against the Pelicans. The Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra also declined to comment.
Do you think the team does anything with PJ Dozier after the report that came out? Erik Horne: No. The Thunder and these NBA teams don't pay the NCAA any mind. Improper benefits have nothing to do with their business once these guys become pros. ... Now, will Dozier (and Josh Huestis) change representation in the future? Both are repped by ASM Sports. But I haven't received any indication yet that Huestis will do so.
FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations between Arizona coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins, a key figure in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption, in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats, sources familiar with the government's evidence told ESPN.
According to people with knowledge of the FBI investigation, Miller and Dawkins, a runner working for ASM Sports agent Andy Miller, had multiple conversations about Ayton. When Dawkins asked Miller if he should work with assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson to finalize their agreement, Miller told Dawkins he should deal directly with him when it came to money, the sources said.
Jason Terry: @APlayersProgram BearDown it’s time to clean house and bring home our own bloodlines to carry on Lutes Legacy. We have too much pride, too much tradition to allow outsiders to tear down what we built.
The email from Christian Dawkins to his boss, ASM Sports agency founder and president Andy Miller, came at 10:47 p.m. ET on July 25 of 2016. Dawkins, a young associate at ASM known for his connections and aggressiveness, sent an email nearly every day to his bosses, including Miller, with recaps of his conversations that day and a plan for the following one. Among the federal documents obtained in discovery over the years-long basketball corruption investigation is nearly 25 emails between Dawkins and Miller over two months in 2016. They double as a diary of the basketball black market. The emails, viewed this week by Yahoo Sports, illustrate how some of the country’s most prestigious programs, including Arizona, Michigan State and Indiana, attempt to get business done.
Dawkins, 24, provides a roadmap for the quid-pro-quo relationship between the agent world and college coaches. He dangles a high school prospect – five-star recruit Brian Bowen – as potential trade bait for schools to steer their best players to ASM Sports. On the same July day, Dawkins wrote to Miller that he connected with two Big Ten assistants, Dwayne Stephens of Michigan State and Chuck Martin, formerly of Indiana.
The emails show what a valuable commodity a star player can be in the recruiting world. Dawkins, 24, who has no formal college education and was in his early 20s at the time, slowly accumulated power with the Arizona staff to the point where he’s heard on federal wiretaps saying he can attend Arizona practices “like I’m on the team.” The emails illustrate how Dawkins attempted to manipulate a powerful collegiate program like Arizona and how the client recruitment dance plays out in the recruiting world.
On Aug. 29 of 2016, Dawkins writes in an email with the subject line “Morning Update” that former NBA coach and current Los Angeles Clippers executive Lawrence Frank is going to connect Pasternack with Andy Miller that week. (Andy Miller and Frank are childhood friends from New Jersey.) Dawkins writes that Pasternack recruited Markkanen: “He is saying that hes [sic] not in place with [NBA agent Dan] Fegan,” Dawkins wrote of Pasternack. “Vye, if you have to make a call to these guys the kid that they want from me is Brian Bowen.” He goes on to encourage Vye, a veteran ASM agent, to build a relationship with Markkanen’s father. “Arizona will do pretty much whatever we ask of them right now, until my kid decides on a school.”
In the same email, Dawkins summarized a meeting with Apples Jones, the mother of Kansas’ Josh Jackson and a self-styled AAU entrepreneur: “His situation is going to get done at the very end. UA is giving her 10k a month and she’s also getting paid by adidas now — so she’s plenty taken care of. She actually works all of under armours events now and talks to the parents as a “advisor”. I do think she’s honest when she says she has only spoken with (agent) Bj Armstrong at this point. After further dialog I don’t think Duffy will be in there — but you can’t count him out ever. We will have to discuss how we will handle the moms boyfriend moving forward.” (A Kansas official pointed to their statement earlier Friday).
The Los Angeles Lakers rookie, who played at the University of Utah from 2014-17, reportedly received $9,500 according to documents obtained by Yahoo! Sports. Kuzma is included on a balance sheet titled “Loan to Players” that showed accounts through the end of 2015. Kuzma’s mother, Karri, denied the report. “I never knew anything about it,” she told the Deseret News. Priority Sports, Kuzma’s current agency, was aware of the allegations but declined to discuss specifics. “We don’t have anything to say, if it's commented on, it'll come from him," said a representative.
Bill Oram of the Southern California News Group reported that Ball said that “everybody knows everybody’s getting paid” and that’s just how it is. “You might as well make it legal,” Ball continued. “That’s how I feel.”
At Utah, Kuzma’s former coach Larry Krystkowiak and athletics director Dr. Chris Hill released statements on the matter. “This situation came to my attention this morning, and I have absolutely no knowledge about it," Krystkowiak said. "At this point, these are allegations. I know we run a clean program and my complete focus will be getting our squad ready for our game against USC.”
One of the Knicks’ guys in the middle, backup center Kyle O’Quinn, learned he is in the middle of the current FBI probe into of one of the worst-ever NCAA basketball scandals. O’Quinn on Friday defended himself and denied any involvement in the acceptance of an illegal loan. “I don’t know too much about the discovery. I haven’t seen too much about it,” said O’Quinn of the evidence collected by the feds in their probe of corruption in college athletics. “I got a brief preview of it when I came to practice today. … Hearing my name as part of it. I don’t think I needed a $1,800 loan within the last couple years. I’m doing OK.”
O’Quinn is among more than two dozen players named. He is listed as receiving an $1,887.06 loan. When O’Quinn came out of Norfolk State, he was represented by Albert Ebanks. O’Quinn aligned with Miller after turning pro. When asked again about the reports of accepting the loan, O’Quinn was firm in his denial. “How many times you going to ask me that? I said no, right?” O’Quinn said. “You want to ask me again?”
O’Quinn defended Miller as “a good guy, good family man, a wonderful agent.” He added: “the only thing I can speak on is his character. How he stood in front of my family looked us in the eye [and] told us what he was going to deliver and he did.”
Sheldon Mac: No wonder y’all College decision was easy !! Lol
Anthony Chiang: Per Heat, Bam Adebayo will not comment on NCAA probe/Yahoo report.
Documents and bank records obtained in discovery during the federal investigation into the underbelly of college basketball detail in meticulous fashion the expenditures of prominent former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports. They include expense reports and balance sheets that list cash advances, as well as entertainment and travel expenses for high school and college prospects and their families. Yahoo Sports viewed hundreds of pages of documents from the years-long probe that had federal authorities monitoring multiple targets and intercepting more than 4,000 calls across 330 days, providing a clear-eyed view into the pervasive nature of the game’s underground economy.
The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules. This could end up casting a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility issues. (NCAA officials declined a request for comment.) There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members. The amounts tied to players in the case range from basic meals to tens of thousands of dollars.
One lawyer in the case, Steve Haney, refused to confirm any of the above details that Yahoo Sports is reporting. Haney, who represents Christian Dawkins, did send a statement by email. “Charging Christian Dawkins with alleged Federal crimes while his bosses at ASM run free is as categorically egregious as charging all the assistant coaches while their bosses are steaming towards the glory and riches of the NCAA tournament,” Haney wrote. “It is utter hypocrisy how these defendants somehow stand accused, while holding the bag and taking the fall for their superiors, who would have been the primary financial benefactors of any supposed scheme.”
So how deep did Miller’s operation go? One source with knowledge of the investigation estimated that ASM Sports was paying more than three times as many prospects, and families of prospects, as clients they signed. The impact on the NCAA landscape is expected to be significant. No one is certain if the federal government is targeting other NBA agents amid the competitive landscape, but it is widely believed within the sport that Miller was far from the only agent operating in this manner.
The University of Louisville will lose its 2013 national championship banner. The NCAA's Infractions Appeals Committee announced on Tuesday that it upheld the Committee on Infractions' ruling that Louisville must vacate 123 wins, including the 2013 title and the 2012 Final Four appearance, as punishment in the school's escort case. It is the first time in modern Division I men's basketball history that a championship was vacated.
The decision, released via the NCAA's website, was the last step in an infractions process that lasted more than two years after Katina Powell's bombshell book prompted an NCAA investigation in October 2015. Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2016 ACC and NCAA tournaments, and later added self-imposed recruiting sanctions after confirming Powell's allegations that former Cards basketball staffer Andre McGee paid women thousands of dollars and gave them game tickets in exchange for them dancing for and having sex with players and recruits.
The FBI recorded communication between numbers tied to Rashan Michel and an NBA scout who served as an agent for a former University of Louisville basketball player as part of its investigation into corruption in college basketball, according to court documents. On Thursday, an attorney for Makhtar Ndiaye wrote a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Loretta A. Preska requesting access to any recordings the FBI obtained via wiretap of conversations between Michel, who was charged in the FBI's investigation, and Ndiaye, a New York Knicks scout who previously represented former Louisville player and fellow Senegal native Gorgui Dieng.
Anfernee Simons is still seriously considering entering the 2018 NBA Draft, the IMG star said after scoring 28 points against Vermont Academy in front of scouts from at least half a dozen NBA teams and a collection of the NCAA’s top college coaches. The 7th ranked player in the class 2018 per 247Sports, Simons has been seeking a new school after decommitting from Louisville in wake of the FBI pay-to-play investigation. Simons says his list of schools consists of Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, SMU, Minnesota, North Carolina State and others, which reportedly include Florida State and Alabama.
Robinson reportedly reached out to the G-League about his eligibility and was told he could not be signed due to the rule. Other cases include players caught up in the current FBI college basketball corruption investigation, including Louisville’s Brian Bowen, USC’s De’Anthony Melton, and Auburn’s Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy.
Miller is the president and founder of ASM Sports, and many of his former clients are expected to remain with other agents in the company, sources said. None of the company's most prominent clients left in the wake of the FBI probe, which included the arrest of an ex-employee, Christian Dawkins, in September.
That’s allowed Miller to continue to fight his version of “the good fight.” But with federal scrutiny creating an undercurrent of uncertainty in the industry, the question lingers whether the scene at Miller’s office on that September morning could be replicated elsewhere. The federal authorities have made it clear this is an ongoing investigation – will they dig in on other agents and financial advisers? The answer to that will reverberate through every level of the basketball world. “I’d say three letters would be how worried I would be in that world – FBI,” Martelli said. “It’s not four letters [NCAA]. This is the federal government. They’re not playing. The pros are involved. They’re going to get to the bottom of it. How deep is the bottom? I don’t know that.”
Jim Tanner (NBA agent): When I first started doing this, I saw a wave of consolidations so smaller agencies joined into bigger agencies. Then, you saw it go back the other way where it was more about the boutique agencies. That’s been a bit of a pendulum. But what I’ve seen the most, as highlighted by what was happening with the FBI recently, is more stories about decisions based on illegal practices that include illegal payments to players or family members or AAU coaches. That has dominated a lot of the most recent agency selections. But that’s not a victimless crime. The players sometimes have no idea that money is exchanging hands and that player can never be certain of the motives of an agent or how hard that agent is going to fight for them or how loyal that agent is going to be to them.
Some may say players should be paid anyways and argue that they’re giving them the money they deserve. What are your thoughts on this? Jim Tanner: When players don’t know someone around them is being paid on their behalf, there is a huge gap in trust. This can extend deeper into other decisions that impact the player. And if you’re being represented by an agent who paid an influencer of yours – whether or not you were informed – who is the agent really working for? As soon as those unethical behaviors begin, the agent/player relationship is tainted and as a result, I don’t think a player can ever be sure the agent is 100 percent working toward what’s best for the client.
Do you have predictions for changes that you think will come from the FBI investigation? Jim Tanner: The whole system needs scrutiny. I see a potential for the agent industry to be disrupted. I hope people change their way of doing things. I hope players and families reset how they select agents and go more towards selecting on the merits of the agent to identify the best, most qualified agent for that particular player. I’d like to see more college coaches get involved. When I first started, they would have someone from the business school and the law school participate with the players. I’d like to see more schools go back to that and have more of the compliance office involved in the selection process. The biggest mistake programs can make is to keep all agents away. I think the best way to address it is to invite agents in at certain times and bring everything into the light.
Four college basketball assistant coaches charged in a bribery scheme were among eight people indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in New York City. The charges and accusations in three indictments largely mirrored the facts found in criminal complaints filed against the men when they were arrested in late September. An indictment, though a procedural step, is a document prosecutors rely upon at trial.
Earlier this week, the offices of ASM Sports, an agency headed by Andy Miller, was raided by the FBI amidst an ongoing NCAA corruption scandal. Janis Porzingis, Kristaps’ brother, works for ASM and is his primary agent. Miller is his secondary agent. Reportedly, at least two NBA clients have left ASM since the investigation became public. “Honestly I’m not informed enough to talk about (that),’’ Porzingis said Friday after returning to practice. “I’m not sure what’s going on, really. I’m in a similar situation right now — I want to focus on training camp right here. However that comes out, we’ll go from there.’’
Richaun Holmes, the 76ers third-year center, was non-committal about whether he would continue to be represented by ASM, the agency associated in the federal bribery investigation concerning the NCAA. Former ASM employee Christian Dawkins was among 10 arrested on federal corruption charges.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on the federal investigation into NCAA recruiting: "I would say both as a fan of college basketball and of course from my capacity as Commissioner of the NBA, it's disconcerting to say the least, when you see those kinds of charges being made….. Maybe at the end of the day, it's not so surprising that the incentives become skewed.”
Myles Turner pledged his support to Andy Miller and his agency. “I’m not concerned with anything that’s going on at ASM,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff people are going to tell me, a lot of stuff in the media. I have a lot of confidence in Andy Miller. I have a lot of confidence in him. I’m remaining loyal to him through thick and thin, which he has done with me. I’m supremely confident this will blow over with him. I have no worries whatsoever.”
Unlike several NCAA coaches, Kerr has a good thing going for himself. He coaches a championship team. And he hardly has to worry about scandals, while assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC were arrested in a bribery scheme. “There’s a reason I coach in the NBA. I never wanted to be a college coach,” Kerr said. “I don’t immerse myself in that stuff. The NBA is very pure. We don’t want to make apologies or concessions about what we’re doing. We’re just playing basketball. It’s a business And the NCAA obviously has lots of things to figure out on many levels who they are and what they’re doing.”
As the college basketball world was shaken by the FBI indictments and Rick Pitino's ousting at Louisville, Beasley spoke out on the corrupt culture in college basketball. Beasley was a top-5 recruit out of high school who chose to go to college in Manhattan, Kan., without ever visiting the school during his recruitment. This was what he had to say on Wednesday, even adding that he's personally responsible for the population growth in Manhattan, Kan. He said via Mike Vorkunov: "Man, you guys are just catching on. And that's all I gotta say.
The US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York announced earlier Tuesday that federal criminal charges have been brought against ten people, including four college basketball coaches, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company (Adidas).
Darren Heitner: Sources: Basketball agency ASM Sports was raided today. FBI had warrant, took Andy Miller's computer.
