Nike likely paid top recruits to go to Duke

Shocking I tell ya

Is the sole source still Michael Avenatti? Haven't kept up on it.

As long as Nike and Adidas continue to be able to funnel money via AAU teams run by parents (Bagley) this will continue.

And yet Duke is not in the championship game.

Timbear said:

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And yet Duke is not in the championship game.

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True. But they have a great chance just about every year, including this one.

vanillabryce said:

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Is the sole source still Michael Avenatti? Haven't kept up on it.

As long as Nike and Adidas continue to be able to funnel money via AAU teams run by parents (Bagley) this will continue.

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He is releasing info about Nike. He's slimy but doesn't mean the information is not correct or valid

bularry said:

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vanillabryce said:

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Is the sole source still Michael Avenatti? Haven't kept up on it.

As long as Nike and Adidas continue to be able to funnel money via AAU teams run by parents (Bagley) this will continue.

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He is releasing info about Nike. He's slimy but doesn't mean the information is not correct or valid

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Is this before or after he tried extortion?

BearFan33 said:

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bularry said:

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vanillabryce said:

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Is the sole source still Michael Avenatti? Haven't kept up on it.

As long as Nike and Adidas continue to be able to funnel money via AAU teams run by parents (Bagley) this will continue.

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He is releasing info about Nike. He's slimy but doesn't mean the information is not correct or valid

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Is this before or after he tried extortion?

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After

bularry said:

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Nike likely paid top recruits to go to Duke

Shocking I tell ya

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Link?

Osodecentx said:

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bularry said:

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Nike likely paid top recruits to go to Duke

Shocking I tell ya

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Link?

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Google Nike paid Zion Mother

Maybe we should start calling them "Nuke" or "Dike."

bularry said:

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Osodecentx said:

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bularry said:

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Nike likely paid top recruits to go to Duke

Shocking I tell ya

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Link?

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Google Nike paid Zion Mother

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I see a little smoke, but nothing illegal...yet.

Zion's step-father coached a travel ball team sponsored by Adidas. I have had some experience with travel ball teams (elite teams sponsored by shoe companies). I don't understand fully how it works.

Amateur coaches recruit elite players to play for a team sponsored by a business. The best players tend to play for teams sponsored by shoe companies. Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour have leagues or circuits and their sponsored teams play only teams sponsored by the same shoe company, i.e. Nike teams only play other Nike teams.

The coaches seem to have a lot of money. Players get shoes ($150 +), uniforms, balls, backpacks, etc. They travel by plane to Atalanta, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, and other cities to play in weekend tournaments. Hotel rooms are paid for by the coach. This isn't illegal. I would call it a loophole and won't get into the ethics of it.

College coaches start their recruiting process by looking at the rosters of these travel ball teams. The travel ball coaches do the early sifting of prospects. As you can imagine, it is very competitve.

Coach K has observed that while college ball teams are strictly amateur, high school and pro players are professionals. What goes on in these high school travel ball teams? I'm not sure.

Below is an article from ESPN. I want a source less tainted than Avenatti. Zion's step dad was coaching an Adidas team and could have been paid a lot, all legal. It is a black hole. I don't know. Nike may have paid Zion's mom for services that were nothing but a sham. I think it is unethical, but is it illegal? I just don't know.


Duke 'looking into' claim Nike paid Zion's mother

Duke athletic director Kevin White said the school is "looking into" attorney Michael Avenatti's allegation that Nike paid Zion Williamson's mother for consulting services while her son was a top high school recruit.
Avenatti, who has been charged with attempting to extort more than $20 million in payments from Nike, alleged on Twitter on Friday night that Nike paid for "bogus" services in 2016 or 2017 "as part of a Nike bribe to get Zion to go to Duke."
In a statement to multiple outlets Saturday, White said Duke would investigate the claim as a compliance matter.

Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels and a staunch critic of President Donald Trump, has been charged with trying to extort Nike.

Avenatti was charged last week in New York with extortion and bank and wire fraud. He was also charged in California with bank and wire fraud in a separate case. He has said he is innocent of the charges against him.
Williamson's stepfather, Lee Anderson, coached his stepson's grassroots basketball team, South Carolina Supreme, which was sponsored by Adidas in 2017.
Adidas sponsored summer circuit teams organized and coached by other prominent college players' families, including Indiana guard Romeo Langford's father. Similarly, Under Armour sponsored former Kansas star Josh Jackson's mother's program, and Nike sponsored a team directed and coached by former Duke star Marvin Bagley III's father.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26458047/duke-looking-claim-nike-paid-zion-mother

bularry said:

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Osodecentx said:

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bularry said:

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Nike likely paid top recruits to go to Duke

Shocking I tell ya

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Link?

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Google Nike paid Zion Mother

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Larry, this and my post above are responses to you. This thread is a good one. I can't find Coach K Youtube interview shortly after Pitino was fired, but this article below is part of it, I think.

Responding to questions about the scandal that rocked college basketball and cost Rick Pitino his job at Louisville, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski took aim at a business model he feels lacks necessary leadership and is not equipped to handle the recruiting landscape.
"We don't have a good model, a model that fits what's happening in basketball, so college basketball's going to have problems," Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in Division I, told reporters at Duke's media day Tuesday. "We in college have not changed as much as the landscape has changed. When we recruit, the grassroots culture of basketball before we get them has changed dramatically. Before these kids ever come to us, we are not the only ones recruiting these youngsters. Talent is being recruited all the time in every shape and form.
"We are not running this the way a billion-dollar industry should be run. We try and put a circle into a square, that's what men's college basketball is. It's not a bad circle, it's a great one, but it can't be done like a square."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/10/04/ncaab-duke-coach-k-ncaa-fix-problems-fbi-scandal/730635001/

Ooooh this could get so juicy. Best case scenario is Nike, Duke and Avenatti all go down. Nike crashes and burns as investors pull out, never to recover again. Duke, the cheaters who knocked us (and Acy) out of the 2010(?) tourney will get NCAA sanctions, and Avenatti gets put in prison for extortion (to the tune of $20+ million).

The greedy get what they deserve and the good guys win!

Grizz Air said:

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Ooooh this could get so juicy. Best case scenario is Nike, Duke and Avenatti all go down. Nike crashes and burns as investors pull out, never to recover again. Duke, the cheaters who knocked us (and Acy) out of the 2010(?) tourney will get NCAA sanctions, and Avenatti gets put in prison for extortion (to the tune of $20+ million).

The greedy get what they deserve and the good guys win!

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.....and Zion moves on to become the next Michael Jordan.

NIKE gets bad coverage for bribing another player to go play for a marquee program and the player leaves an associated NIKE memory - him blowing out his shoe and about breaking his ankle.
Just another day of shoe companies running college basketball.
Where does Baylor set up a NIKE camp to grease the shoe executives?

Grizz Air said:

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Ooooh this could get so juicy. Best case scenario is Nike, Duke and Avenatti all go down. Nike crashes and burns as investors pull out, never to recover again. Duke, the cheaters who knocked us (and Acy) out of the 2010(?) tourney will get NCAA sanctions, and Avenatti gets put in prison for extortion (to the tune of $20+ million).

The greedy get what they deserve and the good guys win!

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That scenario would be fantastic.