By Michael McCann | Sports Illustrated
The first two weeks of the three-week college basketball corruption trial have all but confirmed what many long suspected: top college basketball recruits have been paid thousands of dollars in secret transactions. These payments, some of which were made to recruits’ family members, were structured as inducements to attend particular colleges sponsored by Adidas. The three defendants in the trial—Adidas director of global marketing James Gatto, Adidas consultant basketball organizer Merl Code and client recruiter (a.k.a. runner) Christian Dawkins—are all accused of masterminding various conspiracies to funnel payments to recruits or their families. The fate of these three men will be determined by 12 jurors who have been watching federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and defense attorneys debate the merits of the case before the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, in Manhattan’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse.
If this trial was about proving the existence of corruption in “big time” college basketball, the government would have already proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. A number of witnesses have detailed the extent and pervasiveness of such corruption.
Foe example, former Adidas consultant and AAU coach T.J. Gassnola testified that he played a facilitating role in transmitting five-figure payments to top recruits and/or their families. He named Deandre Ayton, Billy Preston, Silvio De Sousa, Brian Bowen and Dennis Smith as direct or indirect recipients of payments and asserted that the defendants possessed knowledge of such activities. As detailed in other SI articles, these five players have been linked to the case for months. In March, SI revealed that while media reports claimed Arizona head coach Sean Miller sought to pay Ayton $100,000, no such payment occurred. Consistent with SI’s reporting, Gassnola’s testimony did not implicate Miller and he referred to an alleged $15,000 payment to Ayton (who now plays for the Phoenix Suns) rather than one worth $100,000.
