The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino
Page 23
There has been no indication that Brian Bowen Jr. is telling anything but the truth. He would not be the first high school prospect whose services were exchanged for money, but who did not personally see any of it. In fact, there are plenty of people familiar with recruiting’s dark side who would say that this is the norm, not the exception. Even if he did know what was going on behind the scenes, or had some notion of it, he was not controlling the situation. His father and Christian Dawkins were running his recruiting. There was no guarantee Tugs would ever play for South Carolina. The NCAA would have to rule that he was eligible. One holdup was that they wanted him to account for the money that came from Dawkins. How was that impermissible benefit spent? He kept telling them he had no idea because he didn’t know anything about it in the first place.
Tugs declared provisionally for the NBA draft, just in case he was not ruled eligible to play for South Carolina. But his greatest hope was to play NCAA basketball. He was a believer. “I want to eventually play in the NBA, but I love college basketball,” he said. “You know, the tournament, March Madness, all that stuff. That’s been like my dream since I was really little, to experience it at least just once.”
In May 2018, the NCAA let him know that he would not be allowed to play in the coming season. “I am completely devastated,” he said.
Rick Pitino in Florida in March 2018. He was exiled from basketball and angry about the FBI investigation and what he viewed as his betrayal at the hands of the University of Louisville.
The hand of Joon H. Kim, then the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, pointing to a chart illustrating the college basketball recruiting case that led to Pitino’s downfall.
Brian Bowen Jr., playing for his high school team, La Lumiere School in Indiana, in 2016, shocked the college basketball world by signing to play for Louisville in June 2017. “We got lucky on this one,” Pitino said at the time.
Christian Dawkins, a figure on the grassroots basketball circuit, outside the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. He was charged with paying bribes to family members of high school players, including the father of Brian Bowen Jr., to induce players to enroll at Adidas-sponsored universities.
Pitino, in 1997, coaching Kentucky in an NCAA tournament game in San Jose, California.
Pitino’s teams were known for their fierce competitiveness. Here his 2012 Louisville squad celebrates a come-from-behind victory over Florida in the West Regional in Phoenix that qualified them for the Final Four that season.
A former point guard, Pitino always coached in an athletic stance, with one foot on the court. Here he is exhorting his team in the first half of the 2013 national championship game against Michigan in Atlanta, Georgia.
Pitino takes his turn cutting the net down after his gritty team, with undersized players and just one NBA first-round draft pick, defeated Michigan, 82–76, to win the title.
Karen Cunagin Sypher arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of her trial in Louisville in July 2010. Pitino admitted to having sex with her after-hours in a closed restaurant. She was convicted of trying to extort money from him in return for staying quiet about the episode and served more than six years in prison.
Katina Powell coauthored a book, Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen, that told of parties at the Louisville basketball dorm over the course of four years involving strippers and sexual favors for players. The scandal became known as Strippergate.
Andre McGee, in action for Louisville against Arizona in a 2009 NCAA tournament game, is a former point guard for Pitino who later served on his staff as director of operations. Powell said in her book that he provided the money for the sex parties in the dormitory.
Sonny Vaccaro, a former promoter of high school basketball all-star games and later an executive with Nike and Adidas, brought the sneaker companies into the college recruiting and grassroots basketball worlds. He said of the current scandal, “Everybody forgot the boundaries of what they could do with their deals.”
Former USC assistant Tony Bland, one of four assistant coaches charged by federal prosecutors, on the sideline of a game standing behind head coach Andy Enfield.
Former college and NBA star Chuck Person, another of the assistants charged, stands behind Auburn coach Bruce Pearl and instructs a player during a game.
Tom Jurich, the athletic director who built Louisville into an all-sports powerhouse, walks to a meeting with the university’s interim president on the day after news of the recruiting scandal broke. He was dismissed that day.
Pitino and Jurich hold up a sign celebrating Pitino’s 700th victory as a college coach after a win in 2014 in Louisville over Cleveland State. He would reach 770 victories, but the official total fell to 647 after the NCAA “vacated” 123 wins as part of the sanctions for the sex parties in the basketball dorm.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is drawn in part from my interviews with several of the people who figure prominently in it, including Rick Pitino, Tom Jurich, and Brian Bowen Jr.
Jurich, the former athletic director at the University of Louisville, was generous with his time in talking to me about his two decades on the job, and he and his wife, Terrilynn, also made sure I saw some of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where they retreated after leaving Louisville.
Jason Setchen, Brian Bowen Jr.’s lawyer, has represented numerous college athletes and was invaluable in providing insights into how the NCAA deals with young players who become the subjects of its investigations.
Among the people who helped me understand the university and the culturally and socially complex city that surrounds it were Louisville’s longtime mayor, Jerry Abramson, and Keith Runyon, Terry Meiners, Emily Bingham, Craig Greenberg, Karen Williams, Jonathan Blue, Tim Sullivan, Chris Otts, and Jere Downs. Ian Shapira, a Louisville native and ardent U. of L. basketball fan, helped interpret his hometown and offered valuable suggestions.
At the University of Louisville, Kenny Klein, the longtime sports information director, was unfailingly helpful and professional in responding to my many requests. Vince Tyra, the new athletic director, made time for an interview even as he continued to remake the athletic department after the departures of Pitino and Jurich.
Louisville is small enough that its civic leaders overlap on various boards and may be allies in one realm and adversaries in another—and it is Southern enough that its people do not like to offend. There were several Louisvillians who aided in my understanding of the city and its personalities who asked that their names not appear in these pages. I am grateful for their contributions.
I owe thanks to Herb Sendek, the head basketball coach at Santa Clara and a former Pitino assistant; and to Sonny Vaccaro, Tom Konchalski, and Adam Zagoria for their wisdom about the worlds of grassroots basketball and college recruiting. There were, as well, numerous people within the basketball fraternity who spoke to me on the condition that I not include their names.
Jonathan Jensen, a sports marketing professor at the University of North Carolina, educated me on the thicket of relationships between the NCAA, its member institutions, the shoe companies, and various other commercial entities.
As I write this, the innocence or guilt of the defendants in the criminal case involving college basketball has yet to be determined, and there are serious questions about the legal theories used by the government in bringing their charges. But the broader truths that the FBI and federal prosecutors have revealed—of shady practices on the recruiting trail and exploitation of young athletes—are indisputable. Hundreds of pages of court documents have been filed in the case, and the story they tell has informed my reporting and writing.
From the time the charges were announced on September 26, 2017, the case has been exhaustively covered by journalists working across the spec
trum of print, broadcast, and online media, and my research has benefitted from their excellent work. I want to mention several who have led the ongoing coverage and whose work I have found particularly helpful: Pat Forde and Pete Thamel of Yahoo! News; Mark Schlabach, Jeff Goodman, Steve Fainaru, and Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN; Will Hobson of the Washington Post; Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal; and Marc Tracy of the New York Times.
In Louisville, the Courier-Journal has covered the U. of L. angle aggressively, and the investigative team at the television station WDRB has done several years of impressive reporting on the university’s tangled finances. Both are a reminder that vigorous local reporting remains essential.
I have benefited, as well, from the professional and personal support that every author needs to successfully and sanely reach the finish line. My editor, Scott Moyers, urged me to set off on this project and guided me through it with his usual deft touch and good cheer. His assistant, Mia Council, helped keep me on course. Andrew Wylie and Jacqueline Ko at the Wylie Agency were there, as always, to serve as my allies, sounding boards, and advocates.
My wife, Ann Gerhart, has been my closest partner in every way for more than three decades, including journalistically, and she has listened and advised me through the course of this book even as she does her own work as a senior editor at the Washington Post, where it’s been a bit busy lately.
My daughter Sofia Sokolove, in her off hours from her own demanding writing and editing position, contributed many hours of research and was the incisive first reader of the manuscript. I now have the enormous good fortune to have another crack journalist with a finely tuned ear to check my thinking and punch up my writing. (Or, as Ann and I like to say, Sofia has joined the family business—if it actually is one.)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, 27
Abramson, Jerry, 62, 200, 204, 210
Addicted to Quack website, 52
Adidas
and Bowen family’s payoff, 162, 163–65
and Code, 151–52
and deals discussed in Dawkins’s Las Vegas room, 167–68
execs at Louisville’s 50 Yard Line Dinner, 12, 19
and FBI investigation, 4, 21, 22
and Gauntlet tournament, 113
and grassroots programs, 114, 233
Louisville’s contract with, 19–21, 40–43, 195
money funneled to athletes and families, 4, 22, 162, 163–65, 193–94, 225–26
motivations behind school contracts, 196
and payoff protocols, 163
on performance advantages of products, 195–96
and performance bonuses in contracts, 42–43
and Pitino’s lawsuit, 193, 195–97
rivalry for young athletes, 4–5
spatting policies, 40–42
unconventional uniforms supplied by, 36–37
and Vaccaro, 37–38
See also Gatto, James
advertising on campuses, 98–100
agents, 129, 136–37, 150
Air Jordans, 34, 39
Albrecht, Spike, 83
Altman, Dana, 81
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
Dawkins’s work with teams, 133–34
and deals discussed in Dawkins’s Las Vegas room, 167
and FBI investigation, 3–4
and “grassroots” basketball, 4
programs used as conduits for payoffs, 113–14, 227
quality of play in circuit, 54
shoe companies’ donations to, 32, 113–14
amateurism, 3–4, 171–74, 240, 242
American Athletic Conference, 65, 234
Anderson, Derek, 171
Anthony, Carmelo, 48–49
apparel deals. See shoe and apparel companies
Arizona State University, 2, 32
Arthur Hill High School, 49
assistant coaches
bribery of, 150
as cooperating witnesses for FBI, 151
Dawkins on role of, 150
gangster-like speech of, 4
and incentives to cheat, 118
Kaplan on self-serving behaviors of, 159
recruiting roles of, 107–10, 111–12, 118–19, 185
salaries, 117
See also Evans, Lamont; Fair, Jordan; Richardson, Emanuel “Book”
athletes
and AAU programs, 32
in advertising for shoe/apparel companies, 43
and compromised relationships with coaches, 112–13
and free gear from shoe companies, 32
and goals of shoe/apparel companies, 39–40, 196
leveraged for personal gain of adults, 22, 141, 158, 232, 242
lost wages, 177–78
and monetization of sports, 102, 106
money generated by, 175–77
money received by, 30, 112, 158
opportunists in lives of, 106–7, 120
professional model, 234–36
rankings assigned to, 16, 54, 103–4
socioeconomic backgrounds of, 3
and spatting, 40–42
targeted at young ages, 37–38, 48
used as bargaining chips, 181–82
as victims, 158
See also families of athletes; recruiting
athletic programs
and advertising on campuses, 99–100
arms races between, 97–98, 123
and buyouts, 178–79
and coaches’ salaries, 116–17, 178, 232, 236–37
FBI investigation’s effect on, 148
“one-and-done” era in, 109, 128, 231
and reaction to FBI indictments, 116
revenues, 31–32, 179–80, 236
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), 65, 237
Auburn University, 7
audience demographics, 99
Augustine, Jonathan Brad, 165–69
Ayton, DeAndre, 49
Bagley, Marvin, III, 49, 113
Bagley, Marvin, Jr., 113
Balado, Mike, 167, 184
Barbour, Sandy, 41
Barclays Center, 56
Barkley, Charles, 34
Baumgardner, Max, 220
Baylor University, 36, 100–102, 178–79
Bee, Clair, 29–31
Beilein, John, 51
Belichick, Bill, 178
Benz, Larry, 213
Beshear, Steve, 210
betting schemes, 2–3
Bevin, Matt, 12, 214, 219
Big East Conference, 65
Billy Minardi Hall, 86, 90, 200, 244
Bingham, Barry, Jr., 209–10
Bingham, Emily, 209–10, 211, 212, 213–15
Bird, Larry, 34
Bland, Tony, 144–45, 147, 149, 152, 156
Blazer, Louis Martin, III
and Code, 151–52
and Dawkins, 138, 148–49, 152
deals discussed in Dawkins’s Las Vegas room, 165–68
and Michel, 138, 140
and Person, 140–42
and Richardson, 153–54
and securities fraud, 137–38, 142
undercover work of, 138, 140–42, 148, 151
Bleacher Report, 56
Blue, Jonathan, 57, 204
Bol, Bol, 39–40
Bol, Manute, 39
Bossi, Eric, 55
Boston Celtics, 2
Boston College, 2<
br />
Bowen, Brian, Jr. “Tugs”
alias of, in court documents, 161
athleticism and court skills, 18, 48–50, 121–22
background, 5–6, 48–50
commitment to Louisville, 7, 18–19, 126–27, 161–62, 168, 192–93
and Dawkins, 6, 123–25, 162, 182, 244, 246
delay in choice of program, 18–19, 54, 126, 182
father’s coaching, 46–47
and FBI investigation, 22, 23, 169–71
at La Lumiere prep, 50, 55
lawyer, 170–71, 243–44
money funneled to family of, 124, 162, 163–65, 168, 170, 181, 245
NBA ambitions of, 127
NCAA suspension, 246
nickname, 5
and Pitino, 122, 124–25, 168, 192–93, 244
recruitment, 6–7, 50–52, 54–55, 246
removed from Cardinals’ roster, 245
separated from basketball team, 23, 171, 243–45
and Sexton, 54
used as bargaining chip, 182
visit to Louisville, 122–25
Bowen, Brian, Sr.
Adidas’s money funneled to, 22, 162, 163–65, 170, 171, 181, 245
backyard court, 47
coaching Richardson, 46, 47
coaching Tugs, 46–47
relocation to Louisville, 127, 169–70
and Tugs’s recruitment, 6, 246
Bowl Championship Series, 176
Breaking Cardinal Rules (Powell and Cady), 85–86, 89
Bridgeman, Junior, 12
Bridges, Miles, 182
Briles, Art, 178–79
Brown, Larry, 242–43
Bryant, Kobe, 37–38, 54–56
Bryant, Thomas, 182