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Former Arizona Wildcat Deandre Ayton Named in FBI Testimony

By Mark Barrera

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Deandre Ayton poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted first overall by the Phoenix Suns during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Deandre Ayton poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted first overall by the Phoenix Suns during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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The FBI trial started a week ago, and as more testimonies continued this week, Deandre Ayton along with other elite players and schools were named.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team was brought up in the FBI trial once again. This time in reference to Deandre Ayton in an individuals testimony this week.

On Wednesday, Adam Zagoria with NYT Sports, sent out a tweet regarding players who received payments on behalf of Adidas. TJ Gassnola was a former Adidas consultant who testified to directing payments to Ayton as well as other elite college players.

Arizona Wildcats
Arizona Wildcats /

Arizona Wildcats

This mark’s the fourth or fifth time the Arizona Wildcats, directly or indirectly, have been brought up in the FBI trial. Ayton has also been mentioned several times pre-trial and over the last two weeks.

However, each time Arizona or Ayton has been mentioned, the information comes with some puzzled looks.

WildcatAuthority came out to refute some of these claims and perhaps provide a bit more clarity to the outside observer.

Today’s news is probably the most puzzling. According to Zagoria, Gassnola (AAU coach) made payments to the families of five players on behalf of Adidas. As the tweet shows, all of the players are associated with an Adidas school except for Ayton, who obviously attended Arizona, a Nike program.

So the question that comes to mind is, why would Adidas make payments to family members of a player going to a program of your biggest competitor? T

Perhaps you could say they made payments hoping to swoon Ayton to and Adidas schools or signing with Adidas beyond college. That’s certainly a big risk with no guaranteed return. This could be true, but you would have to think Adidas reps are smarter than this, especially considering the other four players actually ended up at Adidas sponsored programs.

As the trial continues to move forward, Arizona fans need to brace themselves for being brought up over and over and over again. With Book Richardson and Joe Pasternack being mentioned time and time again, Sean Miller and Arizona will be brought up alongside.

Related Story. Deandre Ayton Makes Pre-Season Debut. light

Before we cast judgement on Ayton and anything related to receiving payments, let’s be careful to look at how it’s being worded in the trial. From today’s news about Adidas, to Christian Dawkins telling Brian Bowen Sr. school assistants told him (Dawkins) they’d pay for Brian Bowen Jr., there’s plenty of head scratching going around.

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