PAY THE PLAYER$!
Dawkins, sentenced to prison in college scandal, says hoopsters deserve to get cash
With no March Madness to placate college basketball fanatics due to the coronavirus, there is one piece of TV sports viewing that should hold your interest whether you’re a college hoops fan or not.
HBO will air “The Scheme” on Tuesday (9 p.m. EST). Directed by Pat Kondelis, the documentary digs into the infamous two-year FBI sting operation that caught college coaches accepting bribes for elite players.
It was not head coaches caught up in the investigation, but assistant coaches, a financier and one Christian Dawkins of Saginaw, Mich. The son of a highly respected high school basketball coach, Dawkins partnered with others and accepted money to funnel to high school players to colleges that had contacts with sneaker giant Adidas.
Dawkins was arrested on September 26, 2017, along with James Gatto, director of Global Sports Marketing for Adidas; Merl Code, Adidas; Munish Sood, Dawkins’ partner and Jonathan Augustine, program director of Adidas-backed 1 Family AAU program in Florida.
Gatto was sentenced to nine months in prison. Code, six months. Sood was hit with a $25,000 fine and no jail time.
Augustine’s charges were dropped.
Dawkins was found guilty in federal court in the Southern District of New York of fraud and bribery charges and sentenced to a year and a day in jail. He was originally looking at a maximum of 200 years in jail. The convicted felon is appealing the verdict handed down from two trials.
Also convicted and sentenced were Book Richardson, former assistant coach, University of Arizona (three months in jail; two years of probation), Tony Bland, assistant coach, USC (two years of probation; 100 hours community service), Lamont Evans, former assistant coach at South Carolina and Oklahoma
State (three-month prison sentence) and former Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person (pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery; 200 hours of community service and two years of probation). They were sentenced last year.
Richardson had received $20,000 under the table payments while Bland received less than $4,000.
Richardson told Tucson.com after his sentencing via direct message: “I have no knowledge of Sean Miller paying players or attempting to pay them. I was on trial. No one else.”
The main coaches the FBI wanted Dawkins to give up were Miller of Arizona and Rick Pitino, then at Louisville and now the newly named head coach at Iona.
The documentary has audio of Miller and LSU head coach Will Wade talking freely with Dawkins about various players. When the defense subpoenaed the coaches, the prosecutors said no because there’s nothing on the tapes about the coaches asking for or accepting money. No head coaches were on trial.
The outgoing 27-year-old Dawkins doesn’t want anyone holding a pity party for him. He knows what he did, but can’t believe what the government went through to catch him.
“I’m still surprised they actually charged me,” he says, speaking to the Daily News from his home in Los Angeles. “People’s lives got ruined. The crime is getting caught. There’s numerous infraction cases with the NCAA and it’s not the first time someone gave benefits for players.”
That doesn’t make it right, but what Dawkins was trying to do in the shady world of high school basketball was to start a sports agency business, and he needed money. He wanted to take the money, develop the agency then funnel it to the players and tell them which Adidasbacked schools to attend.
He and his partner, Sood, a financier, found their moneyman in Jeff D’Angelo, who said he was into real estate when in fact he was an undercover FBI agent along with his partner Jill Bailey.
Marty Blazer was a partner of Dawkins and Sood who also paid players until he became a cooperating witness for the FBI. He was looking at 67 years until he got one year of probation and had to make restitution to the tune of roughly $1.5 million.
“He should have gotten 10 years,” Dawkins says in the documentary.
Even though he’s a convicted felon, Dawkins prays some changes come out of this.
“There are rules on the books because they were implemented by athletic directors and administrators and the powerful coaches,” he says. “The NCAA lobbied politicians and politics is a much dirtier game than college basketball.
“At some point Congress is going to have to change. If the coronavirus does one thing it shows you can’t have separate rules in separate states.”
The other point Dawkins wants noted is the racial aspect to this scandal. The NCAA doesn’t pay any taxes as a nonprofit business, yet they rake in millions. Dawkins wonders about the young, mainly black athletes who have nothing, and see the money, as illegal as it may be, to help their families.
“You have African-American
families signing letters of intent with no rights,” Dawkins declares. “These are very young adults. Some at 17. Everyone says that AAU basketball coaches are dirty and shady, but the same thing the AAU coaches are doing is the same thing a Roy Williams is doing.
“He’s coaching and guiding players. Roy gets an extension. The AAU coach does the same thing and he’s a (bad guy),” says Dawkins.
“A player is not going to turn down money when they don’t have any,” points out Dawkins, his voice raising a bit. “Eighty percent don’t have thousands of dollars saved. Players should be able to market themselves.
“Should the players be paid? One thousand percent. That’s the only thing that’s right. If you don’t believe that, you’re delusional,” he says, calmer. “The NCAA is not paying any taxes and taking in millions of dollars and can’t pay (players)?”
“Without (players), they don’t have s—-. (Players) have all the leverage. Don’t realize it because they aren’t thinking about it.”
Dawkins admits he’s paid athletes.
“Definitely more than a handful. Less than a hundred. If you’re not making money, then what are you doing?” he asks. “Yes, players should get paid. Now let’s get past it. How are we going to change this and stop acting like it’s not there? White men capitalize on black players and get nothing. And don’t say scholarship?
“Don’t say books and room and board. How do the players’ parents get to the game or take a girlfriend out? It’s the way (the NBA) works. The NCAA needs to step up that way,” he acknowledges.
Would the NCAA go out of business if they did what the NBA does? “Out of business?” he asks. “No. The NBA has no issue with paying athletes.”
“The Scheme” also has audio from coaches Miller and Wade talking with Dawkins about prospective players. The conversations sound like chats between best friends.
“All the coaches are good guys,” states Dawkins. “People thought this (documentary) was a hate piece on their coaches. (Did) Book Richardson got f——-? Yeah. Sean Miller? Should he lose his job? No. The coaches did nothing wrong. Rick Pitino? Hire him in a day (but he’s] not the greatest monitor of NCAA rules.”
Now what does Dawkins do while awaiting his appeal? He’s already working on what for him is the logical next step. He’s co-CEO, along with Steve Rifkin, of Chosen Records in a joint deal with Atlantic Records.
“Just like Puffy (Combs) and others,” he points out. “We’ve got a rapper named Kateel. In a year, he’s a star.”
Dawkins is still hustling. He was trying to be a player agent but now he’s trying to be a record mogul.
“Now, I can’t see the Southern District of New York charging me with anything,” he says with a chuckle.