College hoops fixer details cash payments during trial

NEW YORK A government witness at a U.S. college basketball corruption trial testified Thursday he made a secret US$40,000 payment to the inner circle of a North Carolina State recruit through an assistant coach at the school.

Testifying at a fraud trial in federal court in Manhattan, selfdescribed recruitment facilitator Thomas “T.J.” Gassnola told a jury he delivered the money in cash to coach Orlando Early on a trip to Raleigh, N.C., in 2015. He said the coach told him he was going to give it to a personal trainer for recruit Dennis Smith Jr.

Business manager Christian Dawkins, former amateur coach Merl Code and former Adidas executive James Gatto have pleaded not guilty to defrauding various colleges by concealing the use of under-the-table payments of up to $100,000 from Adidas in exchange for commitments to programs that were seen as a path to the pros. Their lawyers haven’t disputed payments were arranged, but they argue the schools never suffered any harm.

Asked Thursday about the testimony about North Carolina State, athletic director Debbie Yow said in statement, “If any former employee was involved, they knew they were breaking the rules and chose to keep it hidden.”

Early did not respond to a text message Thursday. North Carolina State announced in 2017 Early and head coach Mark Gottfried were leaving the program months before the federal corruption case became public.

Smith is now in the NBA playing for the Dallas Mavericks.