Basketball bribery scandal

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2018 23:36:20 GMT -5 bamahoya11 said:

The most ironic thing I've heard today is the holier than thou coverage on ESPN about how "disappointing" this is for the game and talking big about how Sean Miller should never coach again. ESPN has just as much to do with the commercialization of sports as any coach or agent. They have extolled virtually ALL of the coaches and players implicated in this probe, raising these programs to larger than life status, and doing their own part to keep the blue bloods running. They also televise more and more high school content and have turned basketball and college sports generally into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. It all serves ESPN quite well, along with the NCAA and conference executives and coaches. It hasn't worked quite as well for the players who either (a) choose to avoid these arrangements and go to school even when many of them come from very difficult financial straits while making millions of dollars for the media, the NCAA, their coaches, and their leagues, or (b) enter a world of seedy characters who offer a little on the front end but may bind them for years to come. ESPN doesn't really care about this problem--they care about the industry on which they depend.

I just wish they could appreciate the irony. They should understand what a joke it is when they talk about how Sean Miller shouldn't "ever coach again." Accountability left the station years ago. The idea that ESPN is the voice of reason and ethics in this debate is just beyond humorous

Yep...

Demonstrating that point, current ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke star Jay Williams gave a first-hand account of the sport's corruption on national television.

This week, Williams, who worked as a recruiter for Ceruzzi Sports and Entertainment from 2007 to 2009, explained that he once provided Kevin Love's AAU coach, Pat Barrett, with $250,000 in attempt to secure Love's loyalty.

Here's what Williams had to say:

"There were a lot of dealings that were being made that people didn't know about. There was a lot of money being exchanged. I know for a fact -- there was a reported story from Yahoo! Sports back in 2009 -- I know that we gave an AAU coach for a guy named Kevin Love who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers. We gave him over $250,000. Now, you know, at the time, we were also giving other players money, because you were allowed to give players money through their AAU programs."


A long excerpt of the original Yahoo article appeared in OregonLive in March 2009:

"Using the access {Pat} Barrett offered, Grantham sent in his star recruiter, {Jayson} Williams, to court Love and other Pac-10 players. Williams was working for ESPN as a color commentator and had been hired as a salaried employee by Ceruzzi Sports. He envisioned it as an entry-level job with a future as a full-time sports agent. He was out of the NBA but at 26 still carried cache with young players.

"That's what I was used for, the wow stick," Williams said.

Kevin Love wasn't all that wowed. He's a polite guy but also, by basketball standards, a down to earth one. "I'm an apple pie-and-ice cream kind of guy," he said. NBA stars, Mr. Chow and flashy nights meant little. He claims he wanted no part of dealing with agents, and said he was shocked to find Williams at the restaurant.

"My face turned completely red," he said. "I respect [Williams] as a player. But he came after me and once he started talking about all that agent stuff, I said, 'You know what, talk to my family.' "

Love also explained that Williams' famous, and career-altering, motorcycle crash was part of the reason for his later choice not to sign with Williams' agency

[Elvado]

No doubt Jay Williams learned his ethics at Count Chocula’s knee...

[DanMcQ]

Feb 25, 2018 12:58:29 GMT -5 Elvado said:

No doubt Jay Williams learned his ethics at Count Chocula’s knee...

He didn't earn the nickname Hypokritzki for nothing.

[DanMcQ]

[njhoya78]

Feb 24, 2018 20:12:45 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

Meanwhile on ACCSPN, Dick Vitale says there "is not one iota of proof" of anything untoward with Rick Pitino.

No, there's not one iota of proof. There are many iotas of proof.

[TC]

FBI keeping a close eye on the KU game, couple of Burt Macklins out in force:

streamable.com/r20re

[bamahoya11]

Feb 25, 2018 13:22:26 GMT -5 njhoya78 said:

Feb 24, 2018 20:12:45 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

Meanwhile on ACCSPN, Dick Vitale says there "is not one iota of proof" of anything untoward with Rick Pitino.

No, there's not one iota of proof. There are many iotas of proof.

Rick Pitino is the textbook example of why basketball is so broken right now. I mean literally, there is prostitution to the left of him, pay to play to his right, and his best defense is that he literally knows nothing about the program he was tasked with running. What leadership! Meanwhile, Pitino also demonstrates all the forces that kept him in power, even when personal and professional scandals in his past threatened to derail his career-- powerful shoe companies, shady middlemen, big media, and big athletics who all care more about the multi-billion dollar enterprise they are getting rich from than any sort of accountability.

The sports media is not going to solve this problem. It's no surprise to me that ESPN has doubled down on amateurism because they don't want to give up any share of the wealth they are piling in. ESPN also has no interest to weaken the NBA, in which they have significant interest, or go after the shoe companies who are major advertisers across all sports. Nothing ESPN comes up with is going to be fair to the athletes.

Were it up to me, I would propose a number of reforms. First being a rule like baseball -- go pro straight out or commit to 3 years of college. Up to the player. Then I would relax many of the rules to allow players to accept some benefits and use their likeness and allow a stipend from the school during school and have a fund for them with a small share of the other revenue that they get after they leave school. Coupled with more robust benefits for kids who suffer career ending injuries. Then I would have the NCAA do more to keep agents away from these kids. That may not be perfect, but it's a start.

[bamahoya11]

www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22579359/stan-van-gundy-shreds-ncaa-one-done-rule

Stan Van Gundy shares his thoughts on the state of the NCAA and against the one and done rule.

[drquigley]

I, and many others, have said for years that the NBA should create a minor league system like that of baseball. Why in the world should a kid who only wants to play basketball professionally be forced to attend college. it hurts the kid and the college. I believe Greg Whittington was the perfect example of what happens when you force a kid to go to college when he really doesn't want to.

[hoyas315]

[Bigs"R"Us]

The Waters recruitment $tunk!

[tashoya]

Oh man. If the Waters recruitment turns up in this, prepare for this thread to go gliding.

[iowa80]

Feb 25, 2018 20:01:54 GMT -5 drquigley said:

I, and many others, have said for years that the NBA should create a minor league system like that of baseball. Why in the world should a kid who only wants to play basketball professionally be forced to attend college. it hurts the kid and the college. I believe Greg Whittington was the perfect example of what happens when you force a kid to go to college when he really doesn't want to.

MLB is obviously the model for this, but, between the G-League and foreign leagues, there are options.  Allow high school players direct entry into the NBA (or elsewhere), and recognize (as we do now) that some players who do enter college will not complete their eligibility in favor of a "minor league" (e.g., LJ).  It's not ideal, but I think it's enough.  

[iheartdurenbros]

Feb 25, 2018 20:59:36 GMT -5 tashoya said:

Oh man. If the Waters recruitment turns up in this, prepare for this thread to go gliding.

And I was just thinking the intelligence of this discussion has been Hoyatalk at its best.

[tashoya]

Feb 25, 2018 21:42:03 GMT -5 iheartdurenbros said:

Feb 25, 2018 20:59:36 GMT -5 tashoya said:

Oh man. If the Waters recruitment turns up in this, prepare for this thread to go gliding.

And I was just thinking the intelligence of this discussion has been Hoyatalk at its best.

I shouldn't cast any stones. Check my post count. I've torpedoed more than my share of threads. Glide can drive me nuts at times but I do know he's die-hard so I have to respect that (in my more rational moments anyway). I just saw LSU/Waters and had a flashback.

Personally, I'm hoping the entirety of the BE comes out clean in all of this and, while it may be entirely naïve, I feel like there's a good chance that it will. It would be difficult to avoid discussing it if top programs in other major conferences are implicated and the whole of the BE is not. We do have a Coach K disciple so that has me a bit worried.

[iheartdurenbros]

Feb 25, 2018 22:37:57 GMT -5 tashoya said:

Feb 25, 2018 21:42:03 GMT -5 iheartdurenbros said:

And I was just thinking the intelligence of this discussion has been Hoyatalk at its best.

I shouldn't cast any stones. Check my post count. I've torpedoed more than my share of threads. Glide can drive me nuts at times but I do know he's die-hard so I have to respect that (in my more rational moments anyway). I just saw LSU/Waters and had a flashback.

Personally, I'm hoping the entirety of the BE comes out clean in all of this and, while it may be entirely naïve, I feel like there's a good chance that it will. It would be difficult to avoid discussing it if top programs in other major conferences are implicated and the whole of the BE is not. We do have a Coach K disciple so that has me a bit worried.

He’s a great guy actually. I don’t forget that as I read his posts. He feels JT3 was wronged and that Waters was the answer. No doubt he would have been the point guard he wants. And we all want really. Sometimes less is more — that is my advice to him.

The only program that concerns me is Seton Hall. Willard really did Everything he could to get him. Also I wonder whether his support is eroding. So any lapse could be used against him. I like him, so I hope the Hall does well, not at our expense of course.

I would love for Coach K to surface in reports. Sick of people hold him up as the ideal coach.

[DanMcQ]

amp.si.com/college-basketball/2018/02/24/arizona-sean-miller-contract-ncaa-scandal

[DanMcQ]

[DanMcQ]

www.sportingnews.com/amp/ncaa-basketball/news/ncaa-basketball-scandal-yahoo-report-miller-ayton-payments-news-update-analysis/zrdxlnn7qjow15b4hga9fvz3s

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2018 20:29:31 GMT -5 hoyas315 said:

Pete Thamel is all over this whole story. Part of me wonders if he's working hard to expose everyone's garbage so that his alma mater in lower Canada doesn't look so bad by comparison...