Michael Avenatti filing re: Nike

[elgatoloco_rivals308553]

As the Elvis Costello song goes, "If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me."

Avenatti provides a lot of detail regarding Nike's payments and other practices. I think he's trying to squeeze the government to get a deal or maybe even get charges dropped, as the FBI dropped the hammer on Adidas but, oddly, did little to nothing about Nike.

 

[willycat]

As the Elvis Costello song goes, "If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me."

Avenatti provides a lot of detail regarding Nike's payments and other practices. I think he's trying to squeeze the government to get a deal or maybe even get charges dropped, as the FBI dropped the hammer on Adidas but, oddly, did little to nothing about Nike.

Sounds about right. Like arrest the people at the Chicken Plant but no charges against the owners.

 

[IGNORE]

As the Elvis Costello song goes, "If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me."

Avenatti provides a lot of detail regarding Nike's payments and other practices. I think he's trying to squeeze the government to get a deal or maybe even get charges dropped, as the FBI dropped the hammer on Adidas but, oddly, did little to nothing about Nike.

This is pretty interesting. I wonder if the FBI or DOJ will open a case. THis pleading sure is chocked full of evidence. If NIKE walks away unscathed, it simply further demonstrates the corrupted,broken legal system.

I couldn't care less about Avenatti, but I would love to see NIKE hit hard and the various stories that would emerge. Could bring the end of an era in the NCAA MBB world.

 

[NU Houston]

I would love to see NIKE hit hard and the various stories that would emerge. Could bring the end of an era in the NCAA MBB world.

Hah! Don't hold your breath on this one. The NCAA is an absolute joke. Maybe the Feds come down on Nike, but the NCAA will look away like it always does.

 

[NJCat]

Hah! Don't hold your breath on this one. The NCAA is an absolute joke. Maybe the Feds come down on Nike, but the NCAA will look away like it always does.

Not sure how Nike thinking about paying a high school kid is an NCAA issue......

 

[NU Houston]

Not sure how Nike thinking about paying a high school kid is an NCAA issue......

The shoe companies aren't doing this in a vacuum. They're paying kids to play for schools that wear their products. You think the college coaches are blissfully unaware of what's happening? Plus, if a high school kid and his family are getting paid, then he's no longer an amateur athlete, right?

The business of college basketball is rotten, which I guess isn't surprising given the amount of money sloshing around in the system.

 

[NJCat]

The shoe companies aren't doing this in a vacuum. They're paying kids to play for schools that wear their products. You think the college coaches are blissfully unaware of what's happening? Plus, if a high school kid and his family are getting paid, then he's no longer an amateur athlete, right?

The business of college basketball is rotten, which I guess isn't surprising given the amount of money sloshing around in the system.

I don't dispute that these things are happening at the high school level. But the NCAA has no obligation or legal right to get involved with high school crimes.

If a kid's parents are paid, how do this affect his amateur status? And I think the NCAA would have a hard time challenging a high schoolers amateur status for wearing shoes, which isn't the same thing as being paid to play basketball. But you are right the whole atmosphere of top level basketball recruiting smells of sleeze and graft.

 

[NU Houston]

I don't dispute that these things are happening at the high school level. But the NCAA has no obligation or legal right to get involved with high school crimes.

If a kid's parents are paid, how do this affect his amateur status? And I think the NCAA would have a hard time challenging a high schoolers amateur status for wearing shoes, which isn't the same thing as being paid to play basketball. But you are right the whole atmosphere of top level basketball recruiting smells of sleeze and graft.

The shoes companies are basically paying players to attend certain schools, with coaches at those schools no doubt in cahoots. How is that not a major NCAA rules violation?

In the Adidas case, a father testified that Louisville paid him $100k, through Adidas, for his son to commit there. Assistant coaches at other programs were recorded directing the shoe company to make certain payments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...6dd74a-c89b-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html

 

[elgatoloco_rivals308553]

Pretty sure it would violate a player’s amateur status to receive money while in high school. If it were above-board, shoe companies would form contracts and have press events instead of operating under the table. I’m also pretty sure the NCAA doesn’t have giant loopholes that would allow payments to parents.

The affidavit alleges a Michigan player being paid, but his name is redacted because he is a minor. Everybody knows who that player very, very likely is (Emoni Bates), but so far not a peep out of local news organizations and recruiting analysts. Huh

 

[Katatonic]

The NCAA is an absolute joke.

Back during Barnett's tenure at CO, the NCAA made Jeremy Bloom choose btwn FB and skiing (was told would not be allowed to play football if took endorsement $$ for skiing).

It's for a totally different sport and yet, the NCAA recently allowed Kyler Murray to play at OU despite having signed a professional contract w/ the A's for millions (forcing OU to hike Lincoln's Riley's annual salary).

So Murray was a contracted/professional baseball player, but somehow retained his amateur status.

The kicker is that Murray wouldn't have been deemed eligible by the NCAA if he had taken a dollar of endorsement $$ related to baseball.

This is just the way the NCAA tries to keep the endorsement $$ flowing to the schools and (head) coaches and not to the players (the ones who deserve it the most).

The NCAA, the schools, coaches and administrators have gotten fat off the billions flowing into collegiate sports, w/ the players seeing crumbs.

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

I’m becoming more and more a fan of small college (particularly non-NCAA) sports and less and less a fan of D1 sports. It probably doesn’t hurt that a close friend of mine is head coach of a team that falls into that category...