OT: FBI College basketball scandal might be bigger than we think.
So Avenatti just tweeted out the below and FBI agents swarmed his house shortly thereafter (for quasi-unrelated reasons). Best guess he went to Nike first to see if they were willing to make the story go away, but that Nike is already deep in it, and told the FBI.
Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 25, 2019
Yeah he's being charged with extortion. Asked for $20M in lawyers fees to "investigate" it internally.
M.A.G.A. =
Michael Avenatti Got Arrested
Can you do a press release from jail? Asking for a....... scumbag lawyer
I don't think we can take any of this at face value given the extortion allegation.
Creepy shoe extortion lawyer just doesn’t have the same ring as creepy porn lawyer.
But he's both! And he looks like a condom...
...or the individual involved.
Nike is as dirty as they come. All you have to do is look at Marvin Bagley. Family declares bankruptcy with combined income of 44k and 4 years later living in a gated community of million dollar plus house thanks to Nike AAU.
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/page/the_loyalty_game.html
... and I'd be comfortable betting that Coach K has about twenty insulating layers between himself and the bad stuff. There's most likely a structure in place that will allow him to escape untarnished.
Maybe Coach K was involved, and maybe not.
When the feds come knocking and make an offer to keep you out of the clink if you talk, most people can't wait to tell what they know.
Certain programs, Duke and Kentucky to name two, always have more talent than they know what to do with. Is that due to brand recognition or something more? Maybe we will find out.
As much as I would love to see Duke and N.C. be named as such institutions involved. I would only be getting my hopes up.
March 25th, 2019 at 10:05 PM ^
I missed the part where any of that was "dirty"?
Who should be getting those $millions?
I mean, maybe the near-slaves that fabricate the shoes & clothing, I guess?
I am beginning to tire of bad things, and discussions about bad people and the bad things they do.
You and me both
Honestly wtf is happening right now. It's really disheartening. Maybe this is just how the world is and we are finally realizing it
I don't know. It is hard to trace where I think our collective societal rot stems from. There are a couple of "easy" answers to go with but I think those things/people are more symptoms than they are causes. I do know that we are in a pretty sad state of affairs right now, and that very little remains that I feel like I can tell my kids to believe in.
Beilein. There is still Beilein.
Humans are opportunistic That's all. It explains all actions that don't involve selflessness.
March 25th, 2019 at 10:01 PM ^
Yup, $$$$$$$$$$ easy answer.
Too often I believe that greed is greater than integrity. Certainly not for everybody and maybe only for a small number of people, but enough for all of these stories to come to light.
I blame the Kardashians!
I blame the Russians
I think so too...wait, what?
Was it really ever any better? Or do we just romanticize the past and put too much stock in our grandparents' anecdotes? Corruption is as old as money itself.
There's also Tom Hanks.
I heard a profound quote from Mr. Rogers (YTMR) in a documentary film about him not long ago. He said that all good and evil in the world could be explained by love ... or the lack of it.
That should also give you something to tell your kids to believe in, and cling to.
But what do you tell your kids ? As love can breed evil. Seems problematic.
You think this is something new? People have been looking for easy ways to make a buck for a long time.
I don't think it's anything new. I think the 24 hr news cycle makes it such that more stories are able to be brought to light more rapidly. And scandal stories drive more interest than "man volunteers at homeless shelter."
Exactly. Always good to remind ourselves that the media reports, to a degree, on the anomalies. If the world was completely and totally rampant with corruption—like it infested the vast majority of transactions and individuals—and there was Mad Max style lawlessness on the streets, then someone volunteering at the homeless shelter likely would be on the news.
Yep. And MORE money in college athletics, especially in the form of paying the players, will certainly curtail all the cheating. Not.
A) paying the players won't involve more money in college athletics. It will come from existing revenue.
B) of course people will still cheat. But players will be compensated for their skills and the massive effort they expend to bring untold amounts of money to their school.
Yabut doesn't Title IX dictate that field hockey players would have to make as much as Zion?
A) Title IX is extremely flawed. There, I said it.
B) Zion would be able to profit off his own likeness in such a scenario, so he would be able to make much more than a field hockey player.
March 25th, 2019 at 10:08 PM ^
C) Title IX is short -- basically one paragraph -- and doesn't mention athletics or compensation once. While subsequent ruling have expanded the scope, at its core it's about discrimination, not equality.
I could make a pretty good case that if a college were to offer a share of the gate receipts to the players involved in that sport, they would be Title IX compliant provided that they did that for all sports. They might need to make the ticket prices the same for men's and women's sports, or at least show that they'd done market studies and tried to maximize revenue. The same is true for TV money.
A difference in attendance -- or ticket prices -- between men's and women's sports is not prima facie evidence of discrimination.
" A) paying the players won't involve more money in college athletics. It will come from existing revenue. "
LOL. So who do you think is going to take a pay cut to fund player salaries? Hint: No one will.
" B) of course people will still cheat. But players will be compensated for their skills and the massive effort they expend to bring untold amounts of money to their school. "
I'm sorry, but please get back to me when you're paying full-boat for your offspring to attend a "public" university, which costs something between $80,000 and $400,000 over four years, if they live like normal college students. Then go have a look at the lifestyle and entirely free education (plus stipend) afforded scholarship athletes. Then come back and tell me they aren't already compensated. Hint: They are, handsomely.
This
March 26th, 2019 at 11:03 AM ^
No one's arguing that athletes aren't compensated.
We're arguing that SOME athletes aren't compensated ENOUGH.
Star Trek wisdom...
"I've found that evil usually triumphs...unless good is very, very careful."
--DR. MCCOY, Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Omega Glory"
Thank god we have Beilein and don't have to be worried.
Avenatti is probably going to prison lol
great addition to the thread imo...
Whoever has the most money will win.
Everyone about this guy just looks sleazy. Not surprised to see this
When will the FBI target the Alabama and OSU football programs?
Quit drinking and go to bed.
For what???
/s
Dude, they self-report. Who the hell needs an investigation when they are so upfront and transparent?
It seems like the FBI can't have this douchebag blabbing about it and grandstanding when an investigation is on-going. They will arrest him and prevent it from happening.
Who thinks it is "small", or thinks they know the limit of it's scope? In my circle everyone seems to universally believe it involves all major shoe companies, most major programs, and that corruption is the rule, not the exception.
Also, as fun as it may be to watch the NCAA burn, this dude has ZERO credibility. This is from the federal filing and is a quote from Avenatti during a recorded meeting between him and Nike attorneys.
Avenatti said if he made the allegations public -- conduct that allegedly involved a Nike-client amateur basketball team -- "I am going to receive calls from all over the country from parents and coaches and friends and all kinds of people -- this is always what happens -- and they are all going to say I've got an email or a text message or -- now, 90% of that is going to be bullshit because it's always bullshit 90% of the time, always, whether it's R. Kelly or Trump, the list goes on and on -- but 10% of it is actually going to be true, and then what's going to happen is that this is going to snowball . . . and every time we got more information, that's going to be the Washington Post, the New York Times, ESPN, a press conference, and the company will die -- not die, but they are going to incur cut after cut after cut after cut, and that's what's going to happen as soon as this thing becomes public."
"I'll go take ten billion dollars off your client's market cap," Avenatti allegedly told attorneys for Nike, per the complaint. "I'm not fucking around."
Go ahead and take from that what you will, but please don't assume the scandal is "bigger than we assume" because of this asshat.
I had a couple of beers with a Fab Fiver last year and was told that Notre Dame was the highest bidder for his services.
Nothing in college in basketball surprises me anymore.