The NCAA basketball world was shaken on Tuesday after an FBI investigation into student-athlete recruiting led to the arrests of 10 individuals on corruption charges, including collegiate coaches, shoe brand executives and financial advisers.
Federal documents revealed allegations that the coaches, who worked at notable programs like USC, Auburn, Arizona and Oklahoma State, had received kickbacks from clothing brand executives and agents for pushing players toward brands. The investigation, which was conducted in partnership with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, also showed instances in which families of players were given large quantities of money to ensure the player signed with a particular brand or hired a particular financial adviser prior to joining the NBA ranks.
The reverberations may prove to be bigger than ever in this case, but it’s hardly the first scandal in the world of American collegiate athletics where over the years notable programs like Michigan, North Carolina and Florida State have been hit hard for violations in multiple sports. It’s also hardly the first time it’s been suggested or revealed that high school-level players, some whose families may be in need of financial help and who may not be aware they are violating any rules, have been offered money in exchange for future promises.
Rumours and instances of bribery have come to the forefront in recent years, but the scale of the NCAA’s latest scandal could be heavy enough to illuminate some of the worst aspects of elite-level youth sports in North America.
The recent investigation led to the NBA as well, and on Tuesday night the FBI raided the offices of ASM, an agency headed by Andy Miller that boasts a client list of 47 NBA players including Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, Fred Van Vleet and K.J. McDaniels.
After the news of the raid and Tuesday morning’s arrests broke, Sportsnet spoke to an active NBA agent, talking on a condition of anonymity, to discuss the implications of the scandal.
“It’s going to really shine a light onto the seedy underbelly of basketball as a business in terms of the agents and weird side people who insert themselves with kids and family, and the AAU creeps who just prey on these kids,” the agent says. “The reality is the system is set up to take advantage of people.”
The impact on the NCAA will be significant, especially given the increasingly-intimate relationship between college programs and major brands, one of which is alleged to have paid cash to high school athletes to attend brand-sponsored colleges and later sign with the company before entering the NBA.
Kansas, one of the biggest programs in college basketball, recently signed a multi-million dollar deal with Adidas. The sportswear giant’s director of global sports marketing for basketball, James Gatto, was one of the 10 arrested on Tuesday, and Kansas has been distancing themselves from Gatto and the investigations.
[relatedlinks]
Worth noting in this case is that officials have directed their efforts toward high-level personnel, like Gatto and NCAA coaches, rather than the players or their families. Former USC football star Reggie Bush, a student-athlete earning no salary while his school profited from the sale of his jersey and likeness, had to return his Heisman Trophy after authorities learned he had accepted “improper benefits” while enrolled.
It remains to be seen what type of penalties will come to the athletes implicated here—many may be ruled ineligible for breaking NCAA rules—but the arrests made and names implicated may indicate that officials have set their targets on those behind the scenes.
“For once, one of these investigations didn’t make the vulnerable kids and families the criminals,” says the agent, “and for the first time maybe ever turned the lens back on the real culprits and criminals in these scenarios. In a way, that’s satisfying to see.”
