The FBI’s ongoing investigation into college basketball, which produced a number of criminal charges last fall, has uncovered a wide range of impermissible payments from agents to at least two dozen players or their relatives, including the mother of former University of Kansas player Josh Jackson.
According to a report published Friday by Yahoo Sports, documents from the investigation show that Jackson’s mother, Apples Jones, received a loan from a sports agent associate sometime before Jackson left for the NBA.
The Yahoo Sports article states that Christian Dawkins, a former associate of former NBA agent Andy Miller, sought reimbursement of $2,700 loaned to Jackson’s mother. One expense report reviewed by Yahoo cited a $1,700 advance to Jones in February 2016. An undated entry on another sheet containing February 2016 expenses lists a $1,000 advance to Jones. Jackson committed to KU in April 2016 and was also recruited by Arizona and Michigan State.
Yahoo said that the documents, which were obtained in discovery during the investigation, also link current players including Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Duke’s Wendell Carter and Alabama’s Collin Sexton to potential benefits that would be violations of NCAA rules. According to the report, players and family members allegedly received cash, entertainment and travel expenses from Miller and his agency ASM Sports.
NCAA president Mark Emmert says in a statement Friday the allegations “if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America.”
Emmert said the NCAA Board of Governors and recently formed independent Commission on College Basketball is committed to “making transformational changes” and will cooperate with the federal prosecutors to “identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”
Don Jackson, an Alabama-based attorney who has worked on numerous college eligibility cases, said the root of the problem for the NCAA is that the amateurism model does not work.
“This problem can be solved if players are compensated. This whole issue can be mitigated if players are compensated,” Don Jackson said. “This model of amateurism does not work. The NCAA is not capable of adequately policing tens of thousands of athletes around the country to determine whether or not they have violated the NCAA’s model of amateurism.
“We’re talking about in some instances kids receiving $30 meals from agents.”
The documents posted Friday by Yahoo also list loans to players who, at the time, were outside the NCAA’s student-athlete system and were already considered professionals. One of those players was former KU guard Elijah Johnson, who graduated in 2013. Johnson is listed on a December 2015 balance sheet next to a $15,000 loan. A second sheet, which is undated but contains references to the 2017 NBA Draft, lists the same amount next to Johnson’s name along with the rough description of “Signed back Caglar. Tryng to setup payment plan.”
Johnson signed with ASM Sports before the 2013 NBA Draft and, according to past Journal-World articles, was represented by agent Stephen Pina. Pina is linked to several cases involving impermissible payments to high school and college players, according to Yahoo’s report. Johnson went undrafted by the NBA but continued playing in other leagues. Based on the document posted by Yahoo, it is unclear when Johnson received the loan.
On Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reported Jones said she never received money from Miller or Dawkins.
“I have never met Andy Miller, and while we had a relationship with Christian, we never took anything from him,” Jones told ESPN.
Josh Jackson's mother, Apples Jones, told ESPN she never received any money from Andy Miller or Christian Dawkins. "I have never met Andy Miller, and while we had a relationship with Christian, we never took anything from him."
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 23, 2018
— Check back for more information as this story develops.
