It wouldn’t be an Arizona Basketball off-season without a little drama, as more rumors circulate regarding Arizona and payment to players.
For those wishing to put the allegation drama behind us, unfortunately we have a little bit more to deal with, as our favorite ESPN staff writer outlines more potential allegations against former Arizona Basketball star, Deandre Ayton.
Yes, we know, it’s frustrating huh? Every where we turn, it seems like we get more Arizona Basketball drama. Except instead of Adidas, Sean Miller or Arizona really mentioned in the latest rumors, it’s now Nike and Ayton that’s being implicated.
Arizona Wildcats
In another story released by Mark Schlabach and ESPN, it’s been announced that there has been evidence presented in the federal government’s criminal case against attorney Michael Avenatti. If you may recall, Avenatti had suggested that employees at Nike were paying high-profile college basketball prospects’ handlers and families, but was shut down due to extortion attempts.
However, what’s different now is that there are texts and emails that suggest this could all be true!
Outlined in the story, is that there are emails and texts that have been recovered sent by some of Nike’s directors and key figures talking about securing payments to players.
Implicated in that story is of course former Wildcat Deandre Ayton. Stated in the story by Schlabach, is that an “email exchange between Carlton DeBose (the director of Nike’s EYBL grassroots basketball division) and Mel McDonald, a California-based basketball trainer who worked with Arizona’s Deandre Ayton and Oregon’s Bol Bol, McDonald outlined payments that were to be made to the handlers and family of an unnamed player.”
Those supposed payments to some of the people around Ayton were totaled to be an estimated $65,000.
However, the allegations don’t stop there! Now also implicated in these allegations are former Oregon star Bol Bol, former Duke star and recent No. 1 pick Zion Williamson and ex-Indiana star Romeo Langford.
And that’s not including texts that have been recovered showing an exchange between a Kentucky assistant and one of Nike’s directors
Now what does this all mean? Who knows, since it’s worth noting that Avenatti already got shut down once with all this, however, this now includes “receipts” that add a little more depth to this story.
But underneath it all, what this should signal, is that apparently it’s more programs and high-profiled people that could be involved… not just Arizona as many of our favorite media members like to insinuate.
While it’s still early in all of this, it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out! But it’s worth noting that again this still isn’t verifiable proof that payment happened, nor would it prove that Miller is guilty in any way.
At Zona Zealots, we’re certainly hopeful for Arizona and Ayton to come out fine, but we will see what happens with the latest rumors! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!