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NEW YORK – In 2017, Emanuel "Book" Richardson was having a conversation with his friend Christian Dawkins, where Dawkins essentially called Richardson a fool.
Richardson earned nearly $ 250,000 a year as assistant coach of the University of Arizona basketball team. As Dawkins noted, an aspiring basketball middleman, it was not because Richardson had partying, that he had an affair or even bought expensive clothes. According to Dawkins, he was an "extraordinary guy".
"That's offended me," Richardson jokingly said about the belittled fashion. The quote came from an FBI-recorded conversation that took place Monday during the federal trial for corruption in Dawkins basketball and his co-defendant, Merl Code.
<p class = "canvas-canvas-text canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "On the recording, Richardson, the married father thirdly, agreed that the problem was not what he was spending for himself, but what he was spending on recruits, families and coaches so that they could sign with Arizona. this data-reactid = "34"> When recording, Richardson, the married father of three, agreed that the problem was not what he was spending on himself, but well what he spent for recruits, families and handlers. they would sign with Arizona. this was expensive.
Then, noted Dawkins, Richardson did not even cash when the player became professional and signed with sports agents and financial planners, who are more than willing to pay Richardson for his access to gamers or to cover his gambling costs. initial recruitment.
"I'd like to be a pimp and you're a prostitute, you'd make a million for me," Dawkins said, by Richardson.
Richardson admitted that he was stupid. He explained that he thought using his own money was the best way to keep the situation tight and, if so, "it's their word against mine".
Now, however, he was interested in sharing the burden. He said that he had even exploited retirement accounts for recruitment costs. Thus he arrived at a meeting with Dawkins' sports management start-up, which, unbeknownst to him, was partially funded by FBI infiltrators.
"He was using his personal money to fund his recruitment," Munish Sood, a financial advisor who was one of Dawkins' partners, said Monday. "Christian suggested using someone else rather than his own money."
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Richardson would agree to do it, at For example, Richardson said on a recording that the Sood / Dawkins group, called LOYD Management, had given him $ 15,000 that would have been paid in three installments to the rookie's family Jahvon Quinerly. But Richardson wanted LOYD to know that he still had his "skin in the game" too because he felt it was a better deal. "Data-reactid =" 40 "> Richardson would agree to do it, at least partially.For example, Richardson said on a recording that the Sood / Dawkins group, called LOYD Management, had given him $ 15,000 that would have been paid to him in three installments to rookie Jahvon Quinerly's family.But Richardson wanted LOYD to know that he still had his own skin in his skin. "game" also because he felt that C & J Was a better deal.
"Just so you know, I put $ 10,000 of my own money to give to the mother of the child," Richardson said at the meeting. He also said he had promised to give Quinerly's mother a job "to put you in a good situation for your move to Tucson".
Regardless of whether Richardson actually did this or whether it was just talking loudly to try to add his own value to the partnership. It is also unclear whether any money has been paid to Quinerly or his family. Quinerly, a McDonald's All-American from New Jersey in 2018, had been incarcerated in Arizona but had been dismissed after Richardson's arrest at the time of the outbreak of the scandal (he had pleaded guilty to one charge). conspiracy to bribe and await the delivery of his sentence).
Admittedly, there is a hyperbole in the conversations. Richardson was not bankrupt, for example. However, despite his salary, he did not offer much money to overflow. He was basically a small business. There were bills to pay.
Even by the absurd standards of university athletics, the concept of a high-level assistant coach claiming financial hardship, because hiring recruits is so expensive is a rather amazing time. The fact that this happened in the middle of a federal lawsuit made it even more surreal.
That's why this case should not be about how the NCAA can use certain information to destroy certain schools or players.
Instead, the overarching picture of an obsolete, blatantly ignored NCAA rule book that is at the root of so many problems, should forever break the NCAA concept of amateurism and usher in a new paradigm. system.
Emanuel "Book" Richardson leaves the Manhattan courthouse on October 10, 2017 in New York. (Getty)
The story of Richardson should humiliate everyone in university athletics. To hold a position within a national power such as Arizona, Richardson needed to recruit the best recruits. Yet to attract the best recruits and keep them happy on campus, Richardson needed money. And so it seems that everything was a ploy.
Richardson said he preferred payments to be paid in installments rather than a lump sum at a time to keep recruits / middlemen on the line and avoid scrutiny that tens of thousands of dollars would bring .
"Where are you putting him?" Says Richardson. "Because you can not put [it] under your mattress. Now you are dealing with boys of the alphabet, not the NCAA, the DEA, the CIA. "
He did not know it was a different group of letters, the FBI, that was recording it at that time.
Richardson also used another ploy to reach an agreement with a player, family or handler during their official visit to the campus. He then asked the rookie to visit other schools before publicly announcing his commitment to Arizona a few weeks later.
"I do not want the kind of NCAA [expletive] with us, "said Richardson on a tape." You never want that someone worries about your visit to Arizona and your commitment on campus. [They’ll say] & # 39; What happened? & # 39; "
Richardson said he would use a check every summer to work with the University of Arizona basketball camps, but that could not cover everything.
Recruiting at the highest level is a beast … and nothing seems to come for free.
For example, on a tape, Richardson said he paid $ 2,000 a month to a cousin of Rawle Alkins, a UA player in New York, after moving to Tucson, near Alkins. After two seasons with the Wildcats, Alkins turned pro and spent this season playing mainly for the Chicago Bulls' G-League squad.
If that's true, then it's $ 24,000 a year, or 10% of your pre-tax salary. It would only be an expense. He was responsible for recruiting more players than that. And they did not all land them.
Richardson was certainly someone that we thought was capable of recruiting players. On tape, he said LSU head coach Will Wade had tried to hire him out of Arizona, in part because of Richardson's ties to Naz Reid, one of New Jersey's top New Jersey rookies. 2018.
"[Wade said]"Look, there is an agreement in place, I have $ 300,000 for him," Dawkins said on the videotape, before hinting that Wade was paying too much for Reid. "I said, give me half and I'll make sure the kid goes there.
Recruiting against schools at the SEC was particularly difficult for Richardson. "[Richardson] recruited [Reid]Sood said, "But LSU seemed to be more willing to pay him to attend." Richardson said he had already won the battle for a Louisiana native, though he discovered that he had discovered later that Lil Wayne was involved in one way or another. Or that: "When I recruit against Mississippi State, all bets are open."
Once again, we do not know if Richardson's stories are true or boastful. They did not appear under oath. Speaking, he was trying to impress his different audiences.
What is clear is that the current model for basketball players is broken in every way imaginable. It is relatively easy to identify future players in the NBA, but because of draft rules and laws on amateurism in college (and even high school), these children are lottery tickets waiting to be cashed and are therefore surrounded by agents, financial planners and others.
In the middle is university basketball, a lucrative industry that prohibits the compensation of its players and families … at least over the table.
With everything hidden, the system attracts those who are ready to engage in unusual or even illegal business practices. It's a complete mess that does not serve the players, the game or so, with the exception of coaches and administrators who benefit.
The system creates exploitation, however. Recruits are paid under the table, but later they are used by the same coaches who direct them to agents and financial planners, whether they are doing a good job or not. The money, its necessity, its manufacture feed everything.
Thus, any coach paid by an agent usually comes back to recruiting.
"They will not use this money, not necessarily, to put themselves in their pocket," said Merl Code, consultant for Adidas, on a tape about assistant coaches. "They will use this money to recruit children."
Apparently, that is how you manage to go bankrupt with a quarter of a million dollars or to make a deal with an agent.
And that is why it would be much easier, let alone the legal and ethical aspects, if the NCAA ended up abandoning the masquerade of amateurism once and for all.
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