Source: Christian Petersen / Getty
UPDATE: Wednesday Sept. 27, 1:20 P.M.
According to ESPN‘s sources, Rick Pitino is no longer the men’s head basketball coach at the University of Louisville. He was reportedly released for his alleged involvement in the NCAA corruption scandal.
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It looks as if 10 people involved in NCAA basketball—including four assistant coaches and a senior executive at Adidas—are facing federal bribery and fraud charges.
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says that since 2015, the F.B.I. has been investigating “the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes who participate in intercollegiate basketball governed by the N.C.A.A.”
The four assistant coaches are Auburn’s Chuck Person, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, Arizona’s Emanuel Richardson, and Anthony Bland of USC. The complaint states that the director of global sports marketing at Adidas, James Gatto, allegedly worked with coaches to pay high school athletes at universities that were sponsored by Adidas.
Adidas says it had no idea what Gatto was allegedly doing.
“Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an Adidas employee,” the company said in a statement. “We are learning more about the situation. We’re unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more.”
But by far, the most WTF moment is brought to you by one of the other defendants, Christian Dawkins. The former sports agent was fired in May for reportedly charging $40,000 in Uber rides to an NBA player’s credit card.
